Regurgitant fraction is the percentage of blood that regurgitates back through the aortic valve to the left ventricle due to aortic insufficiency, or through the mitral valve to the atrium due to mitral insufficiency.
It is measured as the amount of blood regurgitated into a cardiac chamber divided by the stroke volume.
[1] In The Framingham Heart Study presence of any severity of tricuspid regurgitation, ranging from trace to above moderate was in 82% of men and in 85.7% of women.
[1] Moderate or severe tricuspid regurgitation is usually associated with tricuspid valve leaflet abnormalities and/or possibly annular dilation and is usually pathologic which can lead to irreversible damage of cardiac muscle and worse outcomes due to chronic prolonged right ventricular volume overload.
Athletes with tricuspid regurgitation also had enlarged right atrium diameter when compared to control group.