Function of the hypertrophied left ventricle at rest and during exercise. Hypertension and aortic stenosis

Assessment of left ventricular function may be of value in patients with pressure-loaded, hypertrophied left ventricles for the purpose of characterizing such patients as to prognostic risk. To determine whether left ventricular function is in part independent of loading stresses in such patients, and to assess the effects of removal of loading factors, we have reviewed preliminary data in 60 patients with essential hypertension and in 26 patients with aortic stenosis who were studied with radionuclide cineangiography. Patients with hypertension manifested a poor but statistically significant direct relationship between systolic arterial pressure and left ventricular ejection fraction at rest, and a poor but significant inverse relationship between systolic pressure and the magnitude of change in ejection fraction from rest to exercise. However, a strong correlation existed between echocardiographic systolic fractional shortening and end-systolic wall stress at rest. Nonetheless, many patients with normal fractional shortening-end-systolic wall stress relationships had subnormal ejection fraction responses during exercise; the two patients with subnormal fractional shortening-end-systolic wall stress relationships at rest also had subnormal fractional shortening-end-systolic wall stress relationships during exercise. Arterial pressure alone was not predictive of these functional responses. These data suggest that hypertensive patients can be categorized on the basis of left ventricular function at rest and during exercise, independent of arterial pressure. Among patients with aortic stenosis, ejection fraction at rest averaged 67 percent before valve replacement (normal = 57 percent, p less than 0.01), and changed little after operation (71 percent, not significant). However, potential functional benefits of afterload reduction in the patient with the chronically pressure-loaded, hypertrophied left ventricle was suggested by results during exercise: before surgery the ejection fraction during exercise averaged 56 percent (normal = 71 percent, p less than 0.01), but after valve replacement it rose to 72 percent (not significant versus normal). Thus, our data in patients with aortic stenosis supplement our data in patients with hypertension, indicating that myocardial functional improvement can be achieved by unloading therapy in patients with long-standing left ventricular pressure-loading and hypertrophy.