Assessing the Relationship Between Symptoms and Mitral Regurgitnant. Severity

The current American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) guidelines recommend surgery in patient with mitral regurgitation (MR) based on 1) the severity of MR and 2) the presence or absence of symptoms. Studies have shown that Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (CMR) is an accurate method to quantify the severity of MR. However, studies have also shown that symptoms are not necessarily related to the presence of symptoms. Thus, there appears to be a disconnect between the severity of MR and symptoms. Recent analysis of our data has shown that females and older patients with smaller ventricles, lower stroke volumes, and lower regurgitant volume relative to regurgitant fraction tend to be symptomatic. These findings suggest that decreased left ventricular compliance, i.e. diastolic dysfunction, may play an important role as an etiology of symptoms in patients with mitral regurgitation. The aim of this study is to study the presence of diastolic dysfunction in patients with MR and its association with symptom burden and exercise capacity.