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Mitral valve prolapse

Overview Symptoms Treatment Prevention

Alternative Names:

Barlow's syndrome; Floppy mitral valve; Myxomatous mitral valve; Billowing mitral valve; Systolic click-murmur syndrome; Prolapsing mitral leaflet syndrome

Symptoms:

sensation of feeling the heart beat (palpitations)
chest pain (unrelated to coronary artery disease or a heart attack)
difficulty breathing after exertion
fatigue
cough
shortness of breath when lying flat (orthopnea)

Note: In some cases, there may be no symptoms or there may be a gradual onset of symptoms.

Signs and tests:

The doctor may feel a thrill (vibration) over the heart. Using a stethoscope, the doctor may hear a distinctive murmur or other abnormal sounds. (The murmur is described as a mid-systolic click and is sometimes followed by a late systolic murmur. This means a click sound is heard midway in the "beating" part of the heartbeat cycle, followed by a murmur near the end of this time.) The murmur is worse when standing. Blood pressure is usually normal.

Mitral valve prolapse and associated regurgitation may show on:

Echocardiogram (an ultrasound examination of the heart)
Color-flow Doppler examination
Cardiac catheterization
Chest x-rays (will show fluid in the lungs or an enlarged left atrium if severe mitral regurgitation is present)
ECG (may show arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation)
Other tests, including chest MRI, radionuclide scans, or CT scan of the chest