Advances in noninvasive assessment of valvular heart disease.

Echocardiography continues to be the noninvasive method of choice in the evaluation of valvular heart disease. Important recent developments include clinical validation of approaches used to quantify valvular regurgitation, in particular the proximal flow convergence zone method; use of transesophageal imaging to monitor and evaluate surgical or percutaneous interventions in valvular heart disease, in particular mitral valve repair; insight into flow-related stretch of the orifice area in aortic stenosis; and validation of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging in small series for quantification of left-sided valvular stenotic and regurgitant lesions.