Left Chamber Function in Mitral Regurgitation and Predicting Outcome After Replacement and Targeting for Early Surgery

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Without surgical treatment, the 10-year morbidity and mortality for patients with severe mitral regurgitation can be as high as 90%. In contrast, with successful surgical correction of mitral regurgitation before the appearance of symptoms, patients may have life expectancies similar to that of the ...

Without surgical treatment, the 10-year morbidity and mortality for patients with severe mitral regurgitation can be as high as 90%. In contrast, with successful surgical correction of mitral regurgitation before the appearance of symptoms, patients may have life expectancies similar to that of the general population. According to European recommendations, mitral valve replacement must be proposed to symptomatic patients and to patients with significant left ventricular remodeling as a consequence of the severity of mitral regurgitation. A significant decline in left ventricular function is defined, in these recommendations, echocardiographically as an left ventricular ejection fraction < 60% or an left ventricular end-systolic diameter > 45 mm. Preoperative left ventricular systolic function and left ventricular end systolic diameter are important postoperative prognostic factors. The early detection of left ventricular systolic dysfunction remains a challenge. Mitral regurgitation causes low left ventricular afterload, and the ejection fraction thus remains normal or supernormal until the disease reaches an advanced stage. Some authors have suggested the additive value of deformation indices as more sensitive than the ejection fraction to detect subclinical left ventricular systolic dysfunction Speckle tracking echocardiography has been well validated as a quantitative assessment tool for left ventricular function, and more recently this technique has been described for assessment of regional and global left atrial function

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