[Bicuspid aortic valve. Echocardiographic diagnostic potentials].

The echocardiographic potentialities in the diagnosis of bicuspid aortic valve are discussed. In the group of 32 patients examined with a clinic and murmurs suspected for that disease, the index of excentricity in five patients, was found to be respectively 1.6, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 1.5, accepted as a reliable index for the diagnosis of aortic bicuspidia. Excentricity index is equal to 1/2 of the aortic diameter, divided to the minimal distance from the diastolic echo of the closed aortic valve to the closer aortic wall. The control group consisted of 44 patients with tricuspid aortic valve, 17 of them being with aortic defect (isolated stenosis or combined aortic defect) and the rest 28 -- without valvular heart disease. Excentricity index for the control group was low -- 1.0--1.33 (average value 1.28). Conclusions are drawn that the echocardiographic method, from the group of the bloodless methods, is with the best diagnostic potentialities in the bicuspid valve and should be looked for in patients with expulsion murmur and click of aortic origin.