According to current recommendations, patients could benefit from tricuspid valve (TV) annuloplasty at the time mitral valve (MV) surgery if tricuspid regurgitation is severe or if tricuspid annulus (TA) dilatation is present. Therefore, an accurate pre-operative echocardiographic study is mandatory for left but also for right cardiac structures. Aims of this study are to assess right atrial (RA), right ventricular (RV) and TA geometry and function in patients undergoing MV repair without or with TV annuloplasty. We studied 103 patients undergoing MV surgery without (G1: 54 cases) or with (G2: 49 cases) concomitant TV annuloplasty and 40 healthy subjects (NL) as controls. RA, RV and TA were evaluated by three-dimensional (3D) transthoracic echocardiography. Comparing the pathological to the NL group, TA parameters and 3D right chamber volumes were significantly larger. RA and RV ejection fraction and TA% reduction were lower in pathological versus NL, and in G2 versus G1. In pathological patients, TA area positively correlated to systolic pulmonary pressure and negatively with RV and RA ejection fraction. Patients undergoing MV surgery and TV annuloplasty had an increased TA dimensions and a more advanced remodeling of right heart chambers probably reflecting an advanced stage of the disease.
Keywords: Cardiac surgery; Echocardiography; Tricuspid regurgitation; Tricuspid valve repair.