Left ventricular volumes in valvular heart disease. Circulation 29: 887

DEVELOPMENT of a satisfactory method for quantifying left ventricular chamber volumes in man has provided an opportunity to assess changes of volume that occur as a result of diseases of the aortic and mitral valves.1-3 These studies provide data concern-ing the relationships among chamber volume, stroke volume, and filling pressure of the left ventricle in patients with valvular heart dis-ease. Materials and Methods Data were analyzed from 86 patients with aortic and mitral valve disease who were studied at the Seattle Veterans ' Administration Hospital or at the University of Washington Hospital. In 81 cases the valve lesions were secondary to rheu-matic endocarditis; in the others they were due to healed bacterial endocarditis (two cases), aortic regurgitation secondary to cystic medionecrosis of the aorta (two cases), and congenital aortic valve disease (one patient). Sixty-four were men and 22 women; ages ranged from 25 to 65 years. For this analysis, the valvular lesions were sub-divided according to the final interpretation of all the available clinical and laboratory data into two groups: predominant aortic and predominant mi-tral valve disease. These major categories were subdivided arbitrarily on the basis of the volume of valvular regurgitation per heart beat, as deter-mined by the angiocardiographic method, where "lminimal " indicated 0 to 20 ml., "moderate " 21 t