Exercise echocardiography in combined mild mitral valve stenosis and regurgitation

Dynamic mitral regurgitation (MR) is typically associated with either severe systolic left ventricular dysfunction or episodes of acute myocardial ischemia. We report three patients with mild combined mitral stenosis and regurgitation and normal global left ventricular systolic function who presented with severe exertional dyspnea. Upright bicycle exercise echocardiography revealed development of severe dynamic MR in all three cases with Doppler evidence of severe pulmonary hypertension. There was no echocardiographic or electrocardiographic evidence of ischemia. Exercise echocardiography is an established tool for assessing dynamic changes in transvalvar pressure gradients. These results suggest that exercise echocardiography may also be useful for evaluating changes in severity of MR and for the assessment of dynamic changes in pulmonary artery systolic pressures.