Another multidisciplinary look at ischemic mitral regurgitation

Ischemic mitral regurgitation (IMR) continues to challenge surgeons and scientists alike. This vexing clinical entity frequently complicates myocardial infarction and carries a poor prognosis both in the setting of coronary disease and idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. Ischemic mitral regurgitation encompasses a difficult patient population that is characterized by high operative mortality, poor long term outcomes, and frequent recurrent insufficiency after standard surgical repair. Yet optimal surgical repair and improved clinical outcomes can only be achieved with better knowledge of the pathophysiology of IMR which is still incompletely understood. The causative mechanism of IMR appears to lie in the annular and subvalvular frame of the valve rather than leaflet or chordal structure leading to such labels as "ischemic," "functional," "non-organic," and "cardiomyopathy associated" being applied in the clinical literature. Although ischemic mitral regurgitation is a prevailing clinical entity, it has not been consistently defined in the literature, contributing to considerable confusion and contradictory results of clinical studies. As the mechanisms of pathophysiology have been better elucidated, novel surgical and interventional strategies have been developed recently to provide better treatment for this difficult patient population. In this review, we undertake a multidisciplinary update of the pathophysiology, classification, and surgical and interventional treatment of ischemic mitral regurgitation in today's clinical practice.