[Alveolar ventilation and oxygen diffusion in the lungs of patients with mitral valve defects].

Evidence has been obtained that in patients with mitral defects of the heart and circulatory insufficiency at rest there is observed total and alveolar hyperventilation accompanied by a falling efficiency of the alveolar ventilation. In patients with mitral stenosis there is noted a progressive deterioration of the oxygen diffusion in the lungs, which depends upon the stage of the circulatory insufficiency. In patients where incompetence of the mitral valve prevails the diffusion disorders become manifest only in cases of a sharply pronounced circulatory insufficiency.