[Comparison of various methods of diagnosis of the mitral valve (author's transl)]

This study compares the information supplied by auscultation, echocardiography and left ventriculography in the diagnosis of mitral prolapse from a study of the world literature and a personal study. A click on auscultation or a telesystolic click murmur is noted in almost 74 p. cent of cases. Echocardiography may lead to false negatives in partial prolapse of the posterior valve and in ventriculography, even judged according to strict and restrictive criteria they may make errors by excess. Telemetric echocardiography may assess in an overall way the number or prolapsed valvular structures and the degree of mitral incompetence. The respective indications of the 3 methods are given in detail.