Spontaneous Echocardiographic Contrast (SPE): Mechanical Heart Valve Closure and Extraction of Bubbles in Gas-Saturated Solutions – An In-Vitro Study

Recent clinical reports have indicated echocardiographic observations of bright mobile echoes in the left ventricle (LV) and in the left atrium (LA) during post-operative studies in patients with mechanical heart valves (MHV) in the mitral position. Depending on their Doppler spectrum signal intensities, some of these echoes have been categorized as gaseous emboli (GE). Our goal was to utilize the most recent innovations in heart pulsed flow simulator system designs combined with ultrasound and high-speed laser video flow imaging methods to understand the formation of gas microbubbles in a closure mechanism.