Right ventricular function in patients with mitral valve disease

Right ventricular function was studied in 13 patients with mitral valve stenosis (MS), 10 patients with mitral valve regurgitation (MR) and 10 patients after mitral valve replacement (MVR) with radionuclide blood pool scan. In MS, right ventricular end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes were larger than MVR. In MR, right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) was smaller and right ventricular end-systolic volume was larger than MVR. In both MS and MR, there was no significant linear correlation between RVEF and mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP) at rest, but during exercise RVEF of patients with elevated mPAP decreased more than that of patients with normal mPAP. RVEF in patients with MS and MR was significantly decreased during exercise, while that in patients after MVR showed no significant change. Radionuclide blood pool scan seems to be useful for the evaluation of right ventricular function in mitral valve disease. (author)