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Abstract

Valvular regurgitation (VR) is considered to be the mainreason behindmorbidity and mortality among cardiac patients. Although physical examination is enough for a clinician to find out the presenceof regurgitation, diagnostic methods are necessary to assessthe seriousness of VR and the changes in cardiac chambers as a resultof the volume overload. Recently, echocardiography with Doppler proved to be the most useful to have the noninvasive recognition and assessment of severity besides etiology of the regurgitation of the valves. The measurements of the regurgitation help in assessingthe progressof the disease, which is criticalin determiningthe correcttime for surgical treatment or any particulartreatment. Doppler echocardiography plays the vital role in giving valuable information on the severity of VR. Today, in clinical cardiology a very high quantification precision is needed for medical application, which is provided by the color Doppler echocardiographic images. This articlereviews several comprehensive methods that are presented in the literature to assessand quantify mitral regurgitation and aortic regurgitation through two-dimensional (2D) color Doppler echocardiographic images, which is the resultof proximal flow convergence method.