Question:medium
Which wall of heart enlargement can be seen on barium swallow in patient with mitral stenosis?
Which wall of heart enlargement can be seen on barium swallow in patient with mitral stenosis?
Show Hint
Back-pressure to the lungs overloads which ventricle?
Updated On: Jun 23, 2026
- Left atrium
- Right atrium
- Left ventricle
- Right ventricle
Show Solution
The Correct Option is D
Solution and Explanation
Step 1: Follow the pressure trail backward from the blocked mitral valve. Blood dams up in the left atrium, then in the pulmonary veins, and finally in the pulmonary arteries.
Step 2: A high pulmonary arterial pressure is precisely the afterload the right ventricle has to pump against. Chronically, the right ventricle thickens and dilates to cope.
Step 3: That right ventricular hypertrophy and enlargement is the chamber change demonstrable in mitral stenosis, while a barium swallow classically shows the dilated left atrium indenting the oesophagus.
Step 4: The left ventricle is not overloaded - it actually receives less blood, so its diastolic pressure stays normal in pure mitral stenosis. The enlarged ventricular wall is therefore the right ventricle.
\[\boxed{\text{Right ventricle}}\]
Step 2: A high pulmonary arterial pressure is precisely the afterload the right ventricle has to pump against. Chronically, the right ventricle thickens and dilates to cope.
Step 3: That right ventricular hypertrophy and enlargement is the chamber change demonstrable in mitral stenosis, while a barium swallow classically shows the dilated left atrium indenting the oesophagus.
Step 4: The left ventricle is not overloaded - it actually receives less blood, so its diastolic pressure stays normal in pure mitral stenosis. The enlarged ventricular wall is therefore the right ventricle.
\[\boxed{\text{Right ventricle}}\]
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