Angiocardiographic observations of intracardiac flow in the normal and in mitral stenosis.

Intracardiac flow of intravenously injected radiopaque material was studied by means of rapid simultaneous biplane stereoscopic angiocardiography. Intracardiac circulation times thus determined may be found useful in recognizing structural abnormality and in detecting changes in car(liac function. In mitral stenosis, a distinctive, but not specific, pattern was recognized whether or not mitral valvotomy had been performed. No relationship was found between left atrial size and left atrial circulation time or between the degree of opacification of the left atrium and that of the left ventricle to differentiate "pure" mitral stenosis from mitral stenosis with regurgitation as diagnosedl at the time of surgery or to l)redlict the degree of mitral stenosis reported by the surgeon.