Functional maturity of tricuspid and mitral valves in school children evaluated by echocardiography.

T he prevalence of valve regurgitation in healthy people has been previously examined by echocardiography. Pulmonary regurgitation or tricuspid regurgitation (TR) was common, mitral regurgitation (MR) was less common, and aortic regurgitation was generally undetectable. In addition, the prevalence of regurgitant signals varies with age or sex. Assuming that a low prevalence of regurgitant signals indicates functional maturity, examining changes in the prevalence and severity of these signals is useful for evaluating the functional development of the valves. In this study, we examined the prevalence and severity of TR and MR with colour Doppler echocardiography in school children and healthy adults.