title: Stress testing in valvular heart disease: clinical benefit of echocardiographic imaging.
abstract: Symptom development represents one of the most important indications for surgical intervention in patients with significant valvular heart disease. Exercise testing has an established role in the assessment of exercise capacity and symptomatic status in patients with severe valvular heart disease who claim to be asymptomatic. In these patients, clinical decision can be influenced by the results of exercise testing. In addition to the assessment of symptomatic response to exercise, stress echocardiography can provide valuable information on exercise-induced changes in valve hemodynamics, ventricular function and pulmonary artery pressure. Abnormal left ventricular response to exercise, increase in pulmonary pressure or change in the hemodynamic severity of the valvular disease adds to the prognostic value of elicited symptoms. In this article we discuss the validated indications, proven prognostic values and potential influence on clinical decisions of stress echocardiography in left valvular heart diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, University Hospital, CHU Sart Tilman, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roşca
authors.forename: Patrizio
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lancellotti
authors.forename: Julien
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Magne
authors.forename: Luc A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Piérard
mesh_terms: D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D025401:Echocardiography, Stress / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D006349:Heart Valve Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests