title: Natural history and left ventricular response in chronic aortic regurgitation.
abstract: This study was aimed at clarifying the natural history and left ventricular response in aortic regurgitation using M-mode echocardiography. We analyzed the history and echocardiographic data on 94 patients, who were divided into 4 stages according to symptoms. The duration of the asymptomatic period, which represents pure volume overload, is long, and the period of minimal symptoms, combined volume and pressure overload, is relatively short. Patients with overt heart failure due to impaired contractility can survive longer than is usually believed, and the factor that predicted the onset of heart failure was a decrease in fractional shortening > 3.8 percentage points.
authors: Department of Internal Medicine, Osaka Medical College, Takatsuki City, Japan.
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Ishii
authors: Y
authors: Y
authors: Hirota
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Suwa
authors: Y
authors: Y
authors: Kita
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Onaka
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Kawamura
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001022:Aortic Valve Insufficiency / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization; D002908:Chronic Disease; D018450:Disease Progression; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left