Color Doppler Evaluation of Valvular Regurgitation in Normal Subjects

430 apparently healthy subjects were studied with color Doppler flow imaging system. There were 216 females and 214 males, their age ranged from 4-80 years (mean 41.2 years). They were divided into 6 groups by every ten years of age, with group I having age below 19 and group VI age above 70. None of the subjects had previous diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases. Mitral regurgitation was detected in 30.9-52.8% in all the groups except group I, in which it was found in 20.0% only. The prevalence rate of tricuspid regurgitation was 9.8-36% in the six groups. Pulmonary regurgitation signals were detected in 43.8-4.8% in these groups with a tendency of lower incidence in the elderly. Aortic regurgitation were detected only in the three elder groups with an incidence of 5.5% in group 4 and 13.6% in group 6. The reason for that may be the degeneration of aortic valve with aging. Our study showed that in a large proportion of normal persons color Doppler echocardiography allows recording of regurgitation signals behind cardiac valves except for aortic valve. The regurgitation volume was small and there was no significant hemodynamic effect. The size and diameter of the heart chambers were normal when compared with other studies.