The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Vol 79, 121-124, Copyright © 1980 by The American Association for Thoracic Surgery and The Western Thoracic Surgical Association
Left ventricular function following aortic valve replacement: assessment by radionuclide ventriculography
FB Parker Jr, FD Thomas, RA Poirier, AH Markowitz and RH Eich
Left ventricular function following aortic valve replacement has been
evaluated in 15 consecutive patients. Cold potassium cardioplegia was
utilized for myocardial preservation. Left ventricular function was
assessed by radionuclide ventriculography performed preoperatively and 3
months postoperatively. The predominant lesion was aortic insufficiency in
10 patients and aortic stenosis in five patients. All patients demonstrated
improved ejection fractions at 3 months. The mean increases of ejection
fraction in the aortic insufficiency group were 20% from the anterior
(Ant.) position and 12.5% from the left anterior oblique (LAO) position; in
the aortic stenosis group they were 15.2% (Ant.) and 14.8% (LAO). It is our
contention that cold potassium cardioplegia is an effective means of
myocardial preservation and that it showed no measurable deleterious effect
on left heart function in this group of patients.