Echocardiography III Exam 1 Practice

Differentiating chronic from acute aortic regurgitation on color and Doppler rests on how the regurgitant flow behaves diastolically and how LV filling pressures modify the jet. In chronic AR the regurgitant jet often shows a steeper deceleration slope on spectral Doppler, and the Doppler envelope can appear triangular rather than the classic box shape. The pressure half-time (PHT) method remains useful for gauging regurgitation severity in chronic cases. In contrast, acute AR features a sudden volume overload with rapidly rising LV diastolic pressures, which tends to shorten the mitral inflow deceleration time, seen as a shortened E-wave deceleration time on MV Doppler. Color flow imaging continues to help gauge jet dimensions, but the key differentiators are the diastolic jet morphology and the timing changes in mitral inflow. So the statement that explicitly pairs chronic AR with steep deceleration slope and triangular Doppler signal, includes the PHT method, notes the acute AR association with shortened MV deceleration time, and acknowledges the role of color flow in jet sizing, best captures the contrast between chronic and acute AR. The other options rely on features that are not consistent or sufficient to distinguish the two states.