Left ventricular ejection performance and systolic muscle function in patients with mitral stenosis.

The status of systolic left ventricular (LV) performance in patients with isolated mitral stenosis (MS) is controversial. Potential alterations in LV architecture as well as loading conditions may have complex effects on LV ejection performance and muscle function. Therefore, we determined hemody- namic and angiographic LV ejection indexes (ejection fraction [EF], velocity of circumferential fiber shortening [Vcf] and stroke work index [SWI]), the level of preload (end-diastolic volume index [EDVII), afterload (end-systolic wall stress [ESS]), and an index of LV contractile function thought to be independent of loading conditions (end-systolic wall stress/end-systolic volume index [ESS/ESVI]) in nine normal sub- jects and 16 patients with isolated MS.