Echocardiographic Abnormalities in the Mitral Valve Prolapse Syndrome

Two echocardiographic patterns of the mitral valve have been found to correlate with anatomic and/or angiocardiographic appearance of redundancy of the mitral valve. The echocardiographic abnormality may be found in the presence or absence of auscultatory findings, while the apparent separation of the anterior and posterior mitral leaflets on echocardiogram does not seem to represent anatomic separation leading to mitral regurgitation. Since the echocardiographic abnormality is found in the absence of various parts of the syndrome, it may be used as a tool to diagnose the mitral valve prolapse syndrome, discover its incidence and follow its natural history.