[Valve insufficiency. Evaluation using color Doppler].

Color Doppler is undoubtedly in the last years main breakthrough in the non invasive definition of regurgitant flows. The detection and quantification of the regurgitant streams, the study of their spatial distribution, the appraisal of their relationships, to anatomical structures, meant a new sight of the physiopathology of valvular insufficiencies. Although this method has an immediate quantitative and qualitative clinical diagnostic interest, its limitations and pitfalls need further investigation. This improvement of technical quality of the equipment and the lowering of its price will surely extend its application beyond its actual limits making color Doppler a routine diagnostic tool in the evaluation of the cardiac patient.