Conversation: The conversation between human and AI assistant.
[|Human|] i recently had an Echocardiogram ..it showed calcification of the mitral valve without any evidence of narrowing of the valve. it showed mild regurgitation. however, there was some shadowing and they felt that it is possible that this mitral regurgitation could be underestimate as a result. what does mitral regurgitation underestimated mean? Thanking you for you advice.
[|AI|]  Hello! Welcome on Chat Doctor! I understand your concern and would like to explain that mitral valve calcification, especially mitral annulus is not a rare finding in elderly individual, those with chronic renal disease, etc. Nevertheless, returning to your concrete issue of concern: mitral regurgitation, I would explain that when acoustic shadowing is present due to excessive calcification, mitral regurgitation visualization on color Doppler could be suboptimal. Coming to this point, additional echo techniques such as spectral Doppler analysis, and evaluation of possible impact of chamber dilation could be a clue to clarify this issue. In addition, in case trans-thoracic echo is not sufficient at providing satisfactory data, then a trans-esophageal echo would be necessary. You should discuss with your doctor on the above-mentioned issues. Hope to have been helpful! Kind regards,