A clear correlation expressed by the following equation was observed between the preoperative left ventricular end-systolic eccentricity (epsilon s) and the percentage change of the left ventricular dimension (% delta D) in chronic valvular heart diseases: % delta D = 88.37 epsilon s - 48.16 (r = 0.66, p less than 0.001). Therefore, epsilon s may function as an index for predicting the postoperative cardiac performance independent of the affected valvular locations and the morphology of the lesions.