Studies on hypermobility have aroused great interest in the last decades, as they are associated to musculoskeletal disorders, as well as abnormalities in several organic systems, such as the mitral valve prolapse. Therefore, in this study, data on the association between joint hypermobility and the mitral valve prolapse were investigated and reviewed. Studies in the literature have shown that ...

et al. Very long-term results (more than 20 years) of valve repair with Carpentier’s techniques in nonrheumatic mitral valve insufficiency. Circulation 2001;104(Suppl I):I-8–I-11. [4] Casselman F, Van Slyke S, Wellens F, De Geest R, Degriek I, Van Praet F et al. Mitral valve surgery can now routinely be performed endoscopically. Circulation 2003;108(Suppl II):II-48–II-54. [5] De Bonis M, Loruss...

This report presents a patient with an unusual clinical course associated with a mitral "mass" recorded by M-mode and cross-sectional echocardiography. The "mass" was confirmed at operation to be redundant myxomatous mitral valve leaflets. The problem of echocardiographic resolution in the setting of mitral valve prolapse and of the differential diagnosis of mitral mass is discussed in detail.

BACKGROUND Ventricular arrhythmias are common in patients with mitral valve prolapse (MVP). Previous studies have provided evidence that a higher degree of systolic mitral valve displacement and the presence of a thickened anterior mitral leaflet are related to an increased incidence of complex ventricular arrhythmias and risk of sudden death in these patients. The aim of our study was to inves...

Exercise electrocardiograms must be interpreted with the understanding that not every positive test is indicative of coronary artery disease. Mitral valve prolapse mimics coronary heart disease clinically and often in the electrocardiographic response to exercise. Twelve patients with mitral valve prolapse in whom exercise testing was positive underwent a repeat study after beta blockade. All t...

Autonomic cardiovascular regulation was evaluated in 35 women, 19 with mitral valve prolapse and 16 healthy controls. Heart rate responses to the diving reflex and to phenylephrine infusion were diminished in patients. Noninvasive measures of cardiac output, heart rate, blood pressure, forearm flow and leg volume during lower body negative pressure (LBNP) showed that patients had less lower ext...

Mitral valve prolapse has been diagnosed by two-dimensional echocardiographic criteria with surprising frequency in the general population, even when preselected normal subjects are examined. In most of these individuals, however, prolapse appears in the apical four-chamber view and is absent in roughly orthogonal long-axis views. Previous studies of in vitro models with nonplanar rings have sh...

Ventricular arrhythmias are common in patients with mitral valve prolapse. Ten patients with echocardiographically confirmed mitral valve prolapse and documented ventricular arrhythmias were included in this study. The aim was to assess the value of combined alpha- and beta-blockade (labetalol) compared with beta-blockade alone (propranolol) in the management of ventricular arrhythmias in these...

Two populations of patients with mitral valve prolapse were analyzed to identify factors predisposing to the development of cerebral emboli. Of 760 patients followed for up to five years by our cardiologists with echocardiographically demonstrated mitral valve prolapse (MVP), only one, aged 82 years, has had a stroke. In contrast, of 43 patients admitted to our neurology service with a cerebral...