ABSTRACT

Echocardiography is a sensitive diagnostic method used as a screening test in certain indications. The aim of the study was to present and to evaluate the echocardiographic findings in 17-18 year-old cadets who will start pilot training. We performed echocardiography to 710 cadets, as a part of routine examination. Toshiba S270A with 2.5 mHz probe was used for echocardiography. All cadets were male (mean age: 18.4 ± 0.6 yrs). We didn't find any pathology in 485 (68.3%) of all cadets. Echocardiographic findings were mitral valve prolapse (n=73, 10.2%), mitral regurgitation in physiologic limit (n=29, 3.9%), tricuspid regurgitation in physiologic limit (n=67, 9.4%), pulmonary regurgitation in physiologic limit (n=62, 8.7%) rheumatic valve disease (n=4, 0.5%), bicuspid aortic valve (n=6, 0.8%), aortic valve prolapse (n=2, 0.2%), atrial septal defect (n=2, 0.2%), interatrial septal aneurysm (n=2, 0.2%) respectively.

As a result, in echocardiographic screening of cadets, findings varying from normal to organic heart disease were found. The percentage of organic heart disease was very small. Also, mitral valve prolapse (10.2%, n=73) (1.4% for classic and 8.8% for non-classic), physiologic tricuspid regurgitation (9.4%, n=67), physiologic pulmonary regurgitation (8.7% n=62) and physiologic mitral regurgitation (3.9%,n=29) were detected. It was concluded that the effect of these echocardiographic findings on flight needed further investigation.