Three-dimensional mitral valve area

From the full volume data acquisition, image planes are defined by the colored lines and boxes (A: green, B: red, and C: blue), which allow positioning of the image plane. A long-axis view (upper left) shows the red line through the center of the mitral valve with the corresponding image plane shown in the upper right panel. The blue line is adjusted in both the red and green planes to be at the mitral leaflet tips and aligned with the mitral orifice for measurement of the valve area as shown in the lower left panel. This three-dimensional approach is more accurate and reproducible than two-dimensional imaging because the three-dimensional approach ensures the image plane is correctly positioned.