[The spiroergometric assessment of the level of exercise hyperventilation in patients with heart defects before and after their surgical correction].

The paper is concerned with elaboration of criteria for spiroergometric assessment of the level of load hyperventilation (LHV) in patients with heart diseases before and after surgical correction. Study of the dynamics of the correlation between CO2 production and ventilation underlies the method suggested. Four grades of LHV are distinguished: mild, moderate, pronounced and dramatic. It is shown that the pronounced and dramatic grades of LHV may provide indirect evidence for high pulmonary hypertension (stage II or III).