[Prevalence, therapeutic modification and prognostic significance of ventricular arrhythmias in the mitral valve prolapse syndrome].

82 patients clinically and echocardiographically identified as having mitral valve prolapse were examined with regard to the incidence of ventricular arrhythmias and their therapeutic and prognostic implications. 73 patients (89%) had ventricular extrasystoles in the 24 hour ambulatory ECG, 33 (40%) of them with an average of more than 30/h. Severe forms like multiform or paired ventricular extrasystoles and nonsustained ventricular tachycardias have been registered in 28 (34%), 26 (32%) and 9 patients (11%) respectively. There is a correlation between the incidence of the arrhythmias and time of registration which corresponds to a natural logarithm. A prolongation of the time of registration to more than 24 hours therefore implies no essential benefit. The incidence and the number of ventricular arrhythmias demonstrated a significant decrease during sleep. The incidence of ventricular pairs and/or ventricular tachycardias was 13% during the night (0-6 h) in comparison with at least 22% during the three daytime periods (6-12 h, 12-18 h and 18-24 h). There was no correlation between the incidence or severity of ventricular arrhythmias and the patients' ages of left ventricular performance.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)