Cardiology in the Young

Table of Contents - 2006 - Volume 16, Supplement S3 (Controversies and Challenges of the Atrioventricular Junctions and Other Challenges Facing Paediatric Cardiovascular Practitioners and their Patients)  

Controversies and Challenges of the Atrioventricular Junctions and Other Challenges Facing Paediatric Cardiovascular Practitioners and their Patients
The Atrioventricular Valves

Anatomy and echocardiography of the normal and abnormal mitral valve

Alfred Asante-Korang a1c1, Patrick W. O'Leary a2 and Robert H. Anderson a3
a1 The Congenital Heart Institute of Florida, University of South Florida, St Petersburg, Florida, United States of America
a2 Pediatric Cardiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America
a3 Cardiac Unit, Institute of Child Health, University College, London, United Kingdom

Article author query
asante-korang a   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 
o'leary pw   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 
anderson rh   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 

Abstract

Unlike the tricuspid valve, the mitral valve has frequently received the attention of anatomists. Indeed, the drawings made by Leonardo da Vinci still retain their currency,1 whilst it was no less a personage than Andreas Vesalius who, as far as we know, first likened the bifoliate appearance of the valve to the Episcopal mitre. It was also Vesalius who recommended that the two leaflets be described as aortic and mural, reflecting their respective relationships to the aortic valve and the parietal atrioventricular junction. It was Roberts and Perloff,2 however, who emphasized the necessity, for clinical purposes, of analyzing not only the valvar leaflets, but also the overall valvar complex. As we will demonstrate in our review, this approach to analysis also proves its worth for the echocardiographic recognition of the congenitally malformed valve.


Key Words: Atrioventricular valves; Shone'; s complex; parachute valve; prolapse.

Correspondence:
c1 Correspondence to: Alfred Asante-Korang MD, The Congenital Heart Institute of Florida (CHIF), Department of Pediatric Cardiology, in Affiliation with The University of South Florida, 100 First Street South, #550, St. Petersburg, FL 33701, United States of America. Tel:+1 727 892 4200; Fax: +1 727 502 8043; E-mail: ak111322@aol.com

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