[Stress echo and valvular heart disease].

Stress echo has already been validated in some forms of valvular heart disease, especially in calcific aortic stenosis with low cardiac output and dynamic mitral regurgitation (MR) of valvular heart disease. Stress Doppler haemodynamics is a term used to differentiate these new indications from that of segmental wall analysis of the left atrium in ischaemic heart disease. In calcific aortic stenosis with low output, the haemodynamics with low dose dobutamine allows assessment of the real severity of the aortic stenosis and identification of the rare cases with mild stenosis: the principal indication remains the assessment of operative risk and long-term prognosis by the study of left ventricular contractile reserve. In cases of ischaemic left ventricular systolic dysfunction, the presence of mild mitral regurgitation (regurgitant surface area >20 mm2 at rest) is a poor prognostic factor. The dynamic character of mitral regurgitation is related to left ventricular remodelling which leads to deformation of the valvular apparatus (mitral tenting). Dynamic mitral regurgitation (regurgitant orifice area >13 mm2 on exercise) is a powerful prognostic factor, the role of which has recently been demonstrated in the genesis of acute pulmonary oedema. the other indications of stress haemodynamics are under validation, mainly the assessment of exercise capacity and valvular compliance in mitral stenosis or asymptomatic aortic stenosis.