Exercise testing in patients with valve replacement

To determine whether detection of pathologic exercise hemodynamics can be based on assessment of noninvasive parameters, pulmonary artery pressure and cardiac output were measured during graded bicycle ergometry in 33 patients with mitral valve replacement and 42 patients with aortic valve replacement. No relationship could be established between exercise capacity, achievement of steady-state conditions of blood pressure and heart rate, the extent of heart rate increase and incurrence or extent of pathologic exercise hemodynamics. Thus, the results show that accurate evaluation of cardiovascular status during exercise in patients with valve replacement cannot be obtained without direct determination of the pressure-flow relationship.