Cardiovascular response to dynamic exercise in patients with chronic symptomatic mild-to-moderate and severe aortic regurgitation

Abstract

Fifteen patients with symptomatic mild-to-moderate and severe chronic aortic regurgitation (AR) performed supine bicycle exercise while measurements of rest and exercise hemodynamics and left ventricular function were obtained. A continuous Doppler method was used to determine the change in distribution of total left ventricular stroke volume between forward stroke volume and regurgitant volume (RgV) with exercise. The pulmonary arterial wedge pressure (PAWP) was lower in the mild-to-moderate AR group than in the severe AR group at rest (8 ± 1.2 vs 19 ± 3.6 mm Hg, p = 0.01) and during exercise (15 ± 3.9 vs 30 ± 4.3 mm Hg, p = .02). In all patients there were increases in heart rate (78 ± 4 to 96 ± 5 beats/min, p