Background. The ability of transesophageal color Doppler echocardiography to provide high-resolution images of both cardiac structure and blood flow in real time is advantageous for many clinical purposes. This study was performed to determine the utility of the regurgitant jet width at its origin measured by transesophageal Doppler color flow imaging in the assessment of severity of mitral reg...

INTRODUCTION In the absence of acute myocardial infarction (MI), ischemic papillary muscle dysfunction (PMD) is a rare complication of coronary artery disease. Dynamic PMD results in intermittent mitral regurgitation (MR). We present a successfully-treated case of recurrent pulmonary edema due to dynamic PMD secondary to chronic coronary heart disease involving the mitral apparatus. A pathophys...

Percutaneous mitral balloon valvotomy (PMV) has evolved into an effective method for the treatment of patients with symptomatic mitral stenosis. An increase in mitral regurgitation can occur in '45% of patients undergoing PMV. Severe mitral regurgitation can be caused by rupture of chordae or of a papillary muscle. Noncommissural tearing of the mitral leaflet is also an important mechanism of s...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between dyssynchrony involving the mitral valve apparatus and the acute improvement in mitral regurgitation (MR) after cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). The effect of interruption of CRT at 6 months' follow-up on dyssynchrony and MR was also evaluated. BACKGROUND Mitral regurgitation may improve acutely after CRT, bu...

This study tested whether the modest hypertrophy that develops in dogs in response to mitral regurgitation is due to a relatively small change in the rate of protein synthesis or, alternatively, is due to a decreased rate of protein degradation. After 3 mo of severe experimental mitral regurgitation, the left ventricular (LV) mass-to-body weight ratio increased by 23% compared with baseline val...

BACKGROUND Ischemic mitral regurgitation often complicates severe ischemic heart disease and adversely affects the prognosis in these patients. There is wide variation in the clinical spectrum of ischemic mitral regurgitation due to varying location and chronicity of ischemia and anomalies in annular and ventricular remodeling. As a result, there is lack of consensus in treating these patients....

T he hammock mitral valve is a rare congenital abnormality resulting in mitral stenosis, mitral regurgitation, or both. Although sometimes technically challenging, the repair of such lesion is possible and should be preferred to mitral valve replacement. We describe here for the first time the case of an adult patient who underwent mitral valve repair for severe mitral regurgitation related to ...

In this issue of Circulation, Bursi et al 1 report that ischemic mitral regurgitation is a more common finding after myocardial infarction (MI) than was previously thought and is an independent predictor of heart failure and death among 30-day infarct survivors. Seldom is mitral regurgitation actively investigated, and investigation is often only prompted by clinical examination. The data Bursi...

Since the initial description of mitral valve prolapse as billowing mitral leaflets leading to regurgitation (1-4), physicians have had to contend with the problem of its noninvasive diagnosis (5-9). Lack of specificity of diagnostic criteria led to a "disease by definition" frequently diagnosed in otherwise normal subjects (10-22). Recent efforts have attempted to restore prolapse to the categ...

Six patients with acute rheumatic carditis and intractable left ventricular failure, all in class 4 NYHA classification, underwent successful valve surgery combined with medical therapy. Two-dimensional echocardiography and Doppler studies showed all of them to have left ventricular dilatation, with good systolic function, together with severe mitral regurgitation; two patients also had severe ...