Relationship between auscultatory events and structural abnormalities in mitral valve prolapse: a two-dimensional echocardiographic evaluation.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the valvular abnormalities and auscultatory findings of patients with mitral valve prolapse (MVP). Forty patients with typical auscultatory and two-dimensional echocardiographic (2DE) findings were studied. Eleven of 14 patients with anterior leaflet MVP (group I) had mid to late systolic clicks without murmurs of mitral regurgitation, while eight of nine patients with posterior leaflet prolapse (group II) and 13 of 17 patients with combined anterior and posterior prolapse (group III) had murmurs of mitral regurgitation. In each subgroup the mitral anulus size was greater than a control group (group I = 3.8 +/- 0.1 cm, p less than 0.025; group II = 3.9 +/- 0.1 cm, p less than 0.005; group III = 4.2 +/- 0.2 cm, p less than 0.001; and control = 3.4 +/- 0.1 cm), but the largest anulus was present in patients with combined prolapse. As demonstrated by 2DE, prolapse of a single mitral leaflet may occur in many instances of MVP. Murmurs of mitral regurgitation occur frequently when the posterior mitral leaflet alone prolapses, while isolated clicks are found with anterior mitral leaflet prolapse.