[Morphological observation of the mitral annulus fibrosus in patients with mitral valve prolapse]

Sixteen cases of mitral valve prolapse (MVP) with mitral regurgitation (MR) in the aged (mainly in their eighth and ninth decades) with both clinical and pathological evidences were investigated. One hundred autopsy cases served as the control. The longitudinally-sectioned mitral annulus fibrosus was pathologically studied in all with special reference to the atrium-valve disjunction reported by Hutchins. Morphologically, the mitral annulus fibrosus was classified either as type A (the mitral valve attaches to the left ventricle), type B (the mitral valve attaches to the left atrium: Hutchins' disjunction), type C (the atrialis continues to the left atrium and the fibrosa to the left ventricle), or type D (mitral annulus calcification). Type B was observed in only 31% of the MVP cases, whereas it was seen in 43% of the control cases. It was concluded that Hutchins' observation could not be regarded as the characteristic pathological finding of MVP.