[Clinical and electrocardiographic aspects of mitral valve prolapse]

Abstract

Group sex and age, symptoms, ST segment, T wave, QT interval and PR interval abnormalities on the EKG, as whereas cardiac arrhythmias were analysed in two groups of patients from the cardiology outpatient clinics: patients from group I (n = 63) had and echocardiographic diagnosis of mitral valve prolapse (MVP), whereas patients from group II (n = 63) had a normal echocardiogram. Women exceeded men in number in both groups, and the female/male ratio was 2.5:1 and 1.5:1 in groups I and II, respectively. The age range in group I was 54 years (15-69) with a mean of 29.3 +/- 10.8 years, whereas group II had an age range of 49 years (9-58) and a mean of 26.5 +/- 10.1 years. Palpitations, atypical precordial pain and dyspnea were the most frequent presenting symptoms in both groups, all been present in 52 (88.2%) of the patients from group I and in 45 (71.5%) from group II. ST and T abnormalities occurred in 2 (4%) patients from group I and in 8 (13%) from group II. The PR interval was equal to or shorter than 0.20s in all cases. The corrected QT interval (Q-Tc) was prolonged in 2 (4%) patients from group I and in 1 (1.5%) from group II. The tachyarrhythmias as a whole, when analysed through the conventional 12-lead EKG, were found in 17 (31.5%) of the group I patients and in 10 (16.5%) of the patients from group II. Ventricular premature depolarizations were detected in 12 (22%) patients from group I and in 8 (13.5%) from group II (p greater than 0.05).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)