[Clinical course of 470 patients with mitral valve prolapse]

The clinical relevance of the echocardiographic finding of mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is largely unclear. Therefore we made a prospective study of 470 patients with MVP established by M-mode echocardiography (63.7% holosystolic, 36.3% late systolic) over an average period of 2.7 years, corresponding to an observation period of 1,269 patient years. Patients with hemodynamically relevant mitral insufficiency were excluded from the study, as were patients with additional cardiac disorders. Three patients died, two of non-cardiac causes, but one probably in sudden cardiac death. 54.8% complained of angina pectoris, 15.6% of dyspnea. 14.4% suffered from non-orthostatic vertigo. 23.3% had one or more syncopes, 14.9% for the first time during the period of observation. 43.4% suffered from rhythm disturbances, 10.2% for the first time during the period of observation. Patients with rhythm disturbances experienced non-orthostatic vertigo (p less than 0.01) and syncopes (p less than 0.01) more frequently than patients without rhythm disturbances. During the study none of the patients developed endocarditis and none had an arterial embolism. Patients with late systolic MVP and a click experienced syncopes more frequently than those with holosystolic MVP without a click (p less than 0.05). Further correlations between the echocardiographic picture, auscultatory findings, age, sex and weight on the one hand and clinical progress on the other hand, were not found. Thus prognosis for MVP with regard to survival seems to be good. Nonetheless, complaints, even potentially threatening syncopes, are frequent. Neither clinical nor echocardiographic findings permit a prognostic statement.