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Mitral Valve Prolapse

Heart Disease (Coronary Artery Disease) Slideshow

Mitral Valve Prolapse Overview

Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is also called click-murmur syndrome, floppy mitral valve syndrome, and Barlow syndrome after the doctor who first described MVP.

The mitral valve is one of 4 valves in the heart. It opens and closes to control blood flow between the heart's left atrium and the left ventricle. The mitral valve has 2 flaps, or "leaflets."

In mitral valve prolapse, one or both leaflets of the valve are too large, or the chordae tendinea (the strings attached to the underside of the leaflets, connected to the ventricular wall) are too long (redundant), resulting in uneven closure of the valve during each heartbeat. Because of uneven closure of the leaflets, the valve bulges back, or "prolapses," into the left atrium like a parachute. When this happens, a very small amount of blood may leak through, moving backward from the ventricle to the atrium.

The valve still works well, and the heart pumps normally. Prolapse does not cause damage to the heart over time. Only 2% of people have other structural heart problems along with mitral valve prolapse.

Previously called the most common heart valve abnormality, mitral valve prolapse was thought to have affected 5-20% of the general population, mainly women. Now with newer, wiser echocardiographic criteria, it is thought to affect only 2-3% of the general population, and it is most often diagnosed in people aged 20-40 years.

Mitral Valve Prolapse Causes

For most people, the cause for mitral valve prolapse is unknown.

Some people may inherit the condition, especially those associated with connective tissue disorders like Marfan syndrome. Marfan syndrome is an inherited disorder of connective tissue that causes abnormally long limbs, loose joints, and bulges (aneurysms) in the aorta, the main artery from the heart.
Up to 40% of people have dysautonomia, an imbalance of the autonomic nervous system. This is the part of the nervous system that controls involuntary body functions such as breathing and the beating of the heart. This may lead to a large number of symptoms that seem serious to the person with the symptoms but are usually not serious (that is, they are not heart conditions).