A common early finding in patients with chronic aortic regurgitation is?

In chronic aortic regurgitation, a common early finding is hypertrophy of the left ventricle. This occurs because the regurgitation of blood from the aorta back into the left ventricle during diastole leads to volume overload. As the left ventricle accommodates the increased volume, it undergoes compensatory hypertrophy to manage the larger amount of blood it needs to pump out.

This hypertrophy is important for maintaining cardiac output initially, but over time, it may progress to heart failure if the underlying issue is not addressed. The other choices, while they can occur in various cardiac conditions, are not specifically indicative of the early changes seen in chronic aortic regurgitation. For instance, enlarged right atrium typically relates to other forms of volume overload or pressure overload in pulmonary circulation, thickened valve leaflets are more associated with stenotic processes rather than regurgitation, and pulmonary hypertension generally develops later as a consequence of sustained volume overload and potential left ventricular dysfunction.