Prevalence of mitral prolapse by two dimensional echocardiography in healthy young women

In order to establish the relative prevalence of mitral valve prolapse as diagnosed by two dimensional echocardiography, we studied 100 presumably healthy young women with two dimensional echocardiography and M-mode echocardiography, history, physical examination, electrocardiography, and phonocardiography. Two dimensional echocardiograms were obtained from parasternal, apical, and subcostal acoustic windows. Mitral valve prolapse was defined as extension of leaflet tissue cephalad to the plane of the mitral annulus into the left atrium; note was also made of any valvular thickening, redundancy, or excessive annular motion. One subject had a midsystolic click and late systolic murmur with evidence of mitral prolapse on both M-mode and two dimensional echocardiography. One subject had a midsystolic click with mitral prolapse demonstrated by two dimensional but not on M-mode echocardiography. One subject had a thick mitral valve on echocardiography but no click or murmur. Four subjects had midsystolic clicks without echocardiographic abnormalities. Mild artefactual pansystolic posterior bowing of the mitral valve on the M-mode echocardiogram could be produced in 20 subjects by incorrect transducer position. We conclude that the prevalence of mitral valve prolapse by two dimensional echocardiography is relatively low in presumably healthy young women. Use of two dimensional echocardiography may avoid overdiagnosis of mitral prolapse and identify a smaller group of individuals with true anatomical abnormalities of the mitral valve.