Nomograms of pulsed Doppler velocities, times, and velocity time integrals for semilunar valves and great arteries in healthy Caucasian children

Doppler velocities are key echocardiographic parameters employed for functional evaluation of semilunar valve and great vessels at all the ages [1]. In adults the range of normality for Doppler measurements in the semilunar valves and great arteries have been recently reported by a few recent multicenter studies with appropriate sample sizes (e.g. from 449 to 1396 normal subjects, N18 years) [2-6]. In contrast, references values for aortic and pulmonary Doppler in children are limited [7-14]. Few recent studies have reported normal values for single parameters [7-10], including the velocity time integrals (VTI) for the aorta [7,10], the pulmonary valve [7], the right ventricular outflow tract [9], maximal Doppler velocities at the aortic level [10], and the pulmonary artery acceleration times (PAAT) [8,14]. A few of these studies had large (e.g. from 756 to 1193 healthy children, age: 0-18 years) [8,10], or relatively large (e.g. 349 subjects, age 0-20 years) [7] sample size, while others were numerically limited (e.g. 75 children, age 1.3-12.6 years) [14].