Impact of exercise pulmonary hypertension on postoperative outcome in primary mitral regurgitation

Retrospective study on 102 consecutive asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic patients with no left ventricular dysfunction and with degenerative mitral regurgitation (MR) who underwent mitral valve surgery in three centers. The authors looked into the usefulness of exercise stress echocardiography in this group of patients to predict postoperative cardiovascular events. The findings show that the development of exercise-induced pulmonary hypertension (PHT) is a major risk factor for cardiovascular events following mitral valve surgery, regardless of symptom onset during the preoperative course. The results of this study suggest that asymptomatic patients with exercise-induced PHT may benefit from early elective surgical intervention.