Heart valve disease: tricuspid valve disease

Abstract

The tricuspid valve is currently the subject of much interest from echocardiographers and surgeons. Functional tricuspid regurgitation is the most frequent aetiology of tricuspid valve pathology, is characterized by structurally normal leaflets, and is due to annular dilation and/or leaflet tethering. A primary cause of tricuspid regurgitation with/without stenosis can be identified only in a minority of cases. Echocardiography is the imaging modality of choice for assessing tricuspid valve diseases. It enables the cause to be identified, assesses the severity of valve dysfunction, monitors the right heart remodelling and haemodynamics, and helps decide the timing for surgery. The severity assessment requires the integration of multiple qualitative and quantitative parameters. The recent insights from three-dimensional echocardiography have greatly increased our understanding about the tricuspid valve and its peculiarities with respect to the mitral valve, showing promise to solve many of the current problems of conventional two-dimensional imaging. This chapter provides an overview of the current state-of-the-art assessment of tricuspid valve pathology by echocardiography, including the specific indications, strengths, and limitations of each method for diagnosis and therapeutic planning.