Mitral stenosis in later life.

Rheumatic heart disease with mitral stenosis has been regarded as a disease that produces symptoms in adolescence or early adult life, and death before the age of forty in the majority. It is admitted that occasionally the first symptoms will appear at the time of the menopause and that if the lesion is accompanied by hypertension, life may be prolonged beyond this period (Levine, 1945). The few clinical observations that have been made on the subject, put the incidence of mitral stenosis beyond the age 50, at from 6 to 10 per cent (Coombs, 1924; Brenner, 1934; Hedley, 1940) (see Table I). Levine and