Peripheral arterial dilution curves were recorded by earpiece densitometer following injection of dye into a femoral vein, pulmonary artery, left atrium and aortic root in 14 cases with aortic insufficiency and 56 control cases without heart disease during routine cardiac catheterization. Six indices (
tpd/
ta,
tpd/
tap, Spread/
ta CL/
Cr,
Cp+ap/
Cp,
Cp10/
Cp) which have been advocated for diagnosis of mitral insufficiency or left-to-right shunt were calculated from the dilution curves.
Cp10/
Cp showed significantly higher values in aortic insufficiency than in controls, while there were no significant differences in the other 5 indices between both groups. Aortic regurgitation was quantitated by continuous injection of dye into the aortic root and recording from the left ventricle, and the values were compared with
Cp10/
Cp. There was a positive correlation between
Cp10//
Cp and aortic regurgitation. It was concluded that the increase in
Cp10/
Cp is resulted from a flatness of its peak without prolongation of downslope of the dye curve in aortic insufficiency, so that the index is useful for diagnosis of this disease.
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