Evidence for progression from mild to severe mitral regurgitation in mitral valve prolapse.

Little information is available concerning the progression of mild to severe mitral regurgitation (MR) in patients with mitral valve prolapse (MVP). This study reports 86 patients, average age 60 years, who presented with cardiac symptoms, precordial systolic murmur, severe MR and a high incidence of MVP on echocardiography (57 of 75 [75%] ) and left ventriculography (61 of 84 [73%] ). Seventy-five surgically excised mitral valves appeared grossly enlarged and floppy. Histologic studies showed extensive myxomatous changes throughout the leaflets and chordae. Eighty patients had had precordial murmurs first described at average age 34 years, but the average age at which symptoms of cardiac dysfunction appeared was 59. However, once symptoms developed, mitral valve surgery was required within 1 year in 67 of 76 patients who had undergone surgery. Atrial fibrillation, present in 48 of 86 patients (56%), or ruptured chordae tendineae, present in 39 of 76 patients (51%), may have contributed to this rapid progression and deterioration. Additionally, 13 patients had a remote history of documented infective endocarditis. Twenty-eight patients had at least 1 type of serial clinical evaluation that indicated progressive MR in all 28 patients on the basis of changing auscultatory findings (24 of 26), progressive radiographic cardiomegaly (24 of 25), echocardiographic left atrial enlargement (4.3 to 5 cm in 11 patients) and angiographically worsening MR (14 of 15). Twenty-four of these patients had evidence of MVP on at least 1 of their initial studies. Thus, mild MR due to MVP and myxomatous mitral valves is a progressive disease in some patients with MVP.