Mitral valve prolapse: its symptom complex and its association with DaCosta's syndrome

Symptoms of DaCosta's syndrome include effort fatigue and breathlessness, chest pain, palpitation, and dizziness. Considered purely functional and anxiety-related by DaCosta, the syndrome has since been related to the mitral valve prolapse (MVP) syndrome and autonomic hyperreactivity. We studied these specific symptoms in similar cohorts of 68 patients with and without documented MVP from a single practice of internal medicine and found only 6% of patients having MVP without symptoms compared to 25% of control subjects (P less than .01). Palpitation was present in 71% of patients with MVP and 33% of controls (P less than .001); dyspnea was noted by 50% of those with MVP and 28% of controls (P less than .02), and chest pain by 44% of patients with MVP and 25% of controls (P less than .01). Our results confirm reports that the symptoms of DaCosta's syndrome are more common in patients with MVP and may call the physician's attention to the proper diagnosis.