Relation of Mitral Annulus and Left Atrial Dysfunction to the Severity of Functional Mitral Regurgitation in Patients with Dilated Cardiomyopathy

Figure 3

Mitral annular area change by 3D transthoracic echocardiography throughout the cardiac systole, in a patient with functional mitral regurgitation (upper panel) and a normal subject (lower panel); mitral annulus from the patient with functional mitral regurgitation is dilated, spherical and shows smaller changes in the annular area during the cardiac systole than the normal mitral annulus.