mitral valve stenosis and high elevation

"Specific to heart valve function, being at a high altitude does not specifically impact the opening-and-closing of your aortic, mitral, tricuspid and pulmonary valves. However, high altitude does affect several cardiac parameters which can then indirectly affect valvular function

Though individual responses vary… For most patients, the lower concentration of oxygen in the air can cause a decrease in oxygen saturation within the blood from 100% down to 80%. That’s a 20% decrease which results in a significant decrease of oxygen delivered to the tissue. The body responds to this oxygen deficiency by increasing the heart rate by 10% to 30%. As the heart rate increases, the pre-existing valvular conditions accentuate.

Patients with valvular conditions – including aortic stenosis and mitral regurgitation – may experience:
Ultimately, the decrease of oxygen at high altitude can lead to symptoms including shortness of breath. In addition, there are two other major factors at altitude that patients should know about which are (i) an increase in pulmonary vascular constriction and (ii) an increase in sympathetic nervous outflow that can lead to an increase in systolic blood pressure. As a result, patients can feel dizzy, fatigue, head aches, chest pain, vision problems and/or or experience heart palpitations. For these reasons, I always recommend that patients – with underlying cardiac conditions – review their medications with their doctor before going to altitude as an adjustment may be warranted."
Becktot, hi. I copied this quote for the information, but never copied the link. I think this was from a cardiac surgeon. Maybe others will weigh in on the information.
I did copy this link, but it's from 1996 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK232874/.

I don't see why moving to a lower altitude would help much because it's not a very high altitude. For comparison, my father, a Canadian mining engineer, moved his family, wife, two sons, and an infant son, to Peru, South America in 1957 where we lived in four different locations over nine years. The lowest elevation was 10K' but we spent two years at 14,300'. That was a challenge for my youngest brother, the infant, and he would not thrive. He existed. We finally had to remove him to the 10,000 foot level where he turned around.

I'm not saying there's no significant difference for a body, especially the heart, between sea level or even 2000 feet and 6000 where you live. There surely is! But it's not the kind of elevation that is going to tax the heart, especially one that has lived successfully there for some years. That's my opinion. I could be mistaken because your heart has a predisposition to mitral stenosis....if....you live at some considerable altitude where the heart needs to pump that much more forcefully and maybe even more frequently, and that might be the case for you. It sounds like I'm waffling here, but your cardiologist gets a say if you ask him/her, and you may not like the response. It may be that he/she knows for a fact that you would do better to move to a much lower altitude. That said, if a mitral repair is successful, why not continue to live where.....................you live?

@becktot, welcome. Mayo Clinic Connect is a space to give and get support from fellow patients. For a medical opinion, you should ask your cardiologist. If you're looking for a second opinion from Mayo Clinic experts, you can request an appointment here: http://mayocl.in/1mtmR63

Have you talked to your cardiologist about your thoughts of moving to a lower elevation?