PMID- 32777140 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20210623 LR - 20210623 IS - 1540-8175 (Electronic) IS - 0742-2822 (Linking) VI - 37 IP - 9 DP - 2020 Sep TI - Relation between left atrial strain and exercise tolerance in patients with mild mitral stenosis: An insight from 2D speckle-tracking echocardiography. PG - 1406-1412 LID - 10.1111/echo.14818 [doi] AB - BACKGROUND: Mild mitral stenosis (MS) is a progressive disease but unfortunately, its clinical course is still unclearly studied. We aimed to study the left atrial (LA) deformation in such patients and how it is related to exercise intolerance. METHODS: Seventy-five patients with mitral valve area of 1.81 +/- 0.13 cm(2) and 40 healthy control subjects were enrolled. All participants had sinus rhythm, and they underwent conventional echocardiography and LA strain analysis with speckle-tracking study. The following parameters were obtained: left atrial reservoir strain (LAS-s), LA conduit strain (LAS-e), and LA contraction strain (LAS-a). All participants underwent symptoms limited stress ECG using modified Bruce protocol. RESULTS: Comparing with control subjects, patients with mild MS had significant lower LAS-s value (P < .01) and LAS-e (<0.03). Patients with exercise intolerance (METs < 8) had lower LAS-s (P < .001), LAS-e (P < .01), and LAS-a (P < .05) values compared to those with METs >/= 8. We found that METs was significantly related to LAS-s (P < .001), brain natriuretic peptide (P < .001), and Delta TAPSE (P < .03). Multivariate analysis showed that LAS-s was an independent predictor of reduced exercise capacity. With ROC analysis, LAS-s