Improvement of Subclinical Left Ventricular Dysfunction in Rheumatic Mitral Stenosis After Percutaneous Balloon Mitral Valvotomy (PBMV) - A Cross Sectional Study

Till date rheumatic fever is a major concern in the developing countries including India. Mitral valve is most commonly involved in rheumatic carditis. Mitral stenosis (MS) with or without regurgitation so far is the commonest lesion. Clinical left ventricular (LV) dysfunction is rare in rheumatic mitral stenosis unless they are associated with aortic valve lesion, concomitant coronary artery disease (CAD), or tachy -cardiomyopathy. Numerous studies have shown subclinical LV dysfunction is common in MS patients that can be identified by Strain echocardiography (SE). We have conducted a cross -sectional study in IPGMER, SSKM Hospital a tertiary care cardiology centre in Kolkata to evaluate improvement of subclinical LV systolic dysfunction by global longitudinal strain (GLS) before and after balloon mitral valvotomy (BMV).The main aim of our study was whether PBMV is enough to improve subclinical LV dysfunction so that need of strain echocardiography can be reemphasized.