Bodily habitus and mitral valve prolapse

We investigated the hypothesis that patients with idiopathic mitral valve prolapse (MVP) have distinctive anthropometric characteristics as part of an ill-defined connective tissue abnormality. In 100 consecutive patients with MVP identified at echocardiography, 56 women and 44 men (age range 28-78 years), we compared measurements of height, weight, arm span, upper and lower body segments, anteroposterior chest diameter, anteroposterior chest diameter/height index, body mass index, and metacarpal index with those from an age and sex matched control group. We also compared the frequency of thoracic asymmetry in MVP patients and controls. Both male and female MVP patients had lower body mass indices than their controls (p less than 0.01 and p less than 0.01 and p less than 0.001, respectively). Women with MVP were lighter than their controls (p less than 0.001) and the same trend was seen in men (p = 0.14). There were no significant differences with any of the other measurements or in the frequency of thoracic asymmetry. We conclude that patients of both sexes with idiopathic MVP are leaner than control subjects but do not otherwise have a specific bodily habitus or an increased frequency of thoracic cage abnormalities. The findings do not support the hypothesis of an underlying generalised connective tissue abnormality but raise the interesting question of why MVP patients should be lean.