Recommendations for the imaging assessment of prosthetic heart valves: a ă report from the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging endorsed ă by the Chinese Society of Echocardiography, the Inter-American Society ă of Echocardiography, and the Brazilian Department of Cardiovascular ă Imaging
Résumé
Prosthetic heart valve (PHV) dysfunction is rare but potentially ă life-threatening. Although often challenging, establishing the exact ă cause of PHV dysfunction is essential to determine the appropriate ă treatment strategy. In clinical practice, a comprehensive approach that ă integrates several parameters of valve morphology and function assessed ă with 2D/3D transthoracic and transoesophageal echocardiography is a key ă to appropriately detect and quantitate PHV dysfunction. Cinefluoroscopy, ă multidetector computed tomography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, ă and to a lesser extent, nuclear imaging are complementary tools for the ă diagnosis and management of PHV complications. The present document ă provides recommendations for the use of multimodality imaging in the ă assessment of PHVs.