Prognostic value of exercise stress echocardiography in patients with secondary mitral regurgitation: a long-term follow-up study.

Background: Secondary mitral regurgitation (MR) remains a challenging problem in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with heart failure. Although it is well known that secondary MR is dynamic, the impact of the severity of MR during exercise on long-term outcome has not been fully evaluated. The aim of the present study was to investigate the prognostic value of exercise stress echocardiography (ESE) in patients with secondary MR.

Direct Comparison of Severity Grading Assessed by Two-Dimensional, Three-Dimensional, and Doppler Echocardiography for Predicting Prognosis in Asymptomatic Aortic Stenosis.

Background: Reliable assessment of aortic stenosis (AS) severity relies on stroke volume (SV) determination using Doppler echocardiography, but it can also be estimated with two-dimensional/three dimensional echocardiography (2DE/3DE). The aim of this study was to compare SV measurements and AS subgroup classifications among the three modalities and determine their prognostic strength in asymptomatic AS.

Methods: We prospectively enrolled 359 patients with asymptomatic AS.

Geometry of the left ventricular outflow tract assessed by 3D TEE in patients with aortic stenosis: impact of upper septal hypertrophy on measurements of Doppler-derived left ventricular stroke volume.

Background: It is unclear how upper septal hypertrophy (USH) affects Doppler-derived left ventricular stroke volume (SV) in patients with AS. The aims of this study were to: (1) validate the accuracy of 3D transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) measurements of the left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT), (2) evaluate the differences in LVOT geometry between AS patients with and without USH, and (3) assess the impact of USH on measurement of SV.

Methods: In protocol 1, both 3D TEE and multi-detector computed tomography were performed in 20 patients with AS [aortic valve area (AVA) ≤ 1.