Introduction
One of the steps in standardized aortic valve repair is alignment of
leaflet free margin lengths1. This step is crucial in
bicuspid aortic valve repair, where only two leaflets coapt and must
have identical free margin length for the valve to be competent.
However, clinical experience shows that tricuspid aortic valves can be
very asymmetric in terms leaflet size and free margin length but still
function normally2. In tricuspid aortic valves equal
effective leaflet height appears to be more important than equal free
margin length3,4. The primary aim of the present study
was to use coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA) in patients
with normal tricuspid aortic valves to perform detailed aortic root and
aortic valve geometric analysis with a focus on asymmetry of the three
leaflets.