Mitral Valve Prolapse

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• Facts about mitral valve prolapse
• What is mitral valve prolapse?
• What are the symptoms of mitral valve prolapse?
• What causes mitral valve prolapse?
• When to seek medical care for mitral valve prolapse
• How is mitral valve prolapse diagnosed?
• What is the treatment for mitral valve prolapse?
• Will surgery cure mitral valve prolapse?
• Should I follow-up with my doctor after being treated for mitral valve prolapse?
• What is the outlook for a person with mitral valve prolapse?
• What does mitral valve prolapse look like?
• Read more on Mitral Valve Prolapse from Healthwise

• The mitral valve is one of four 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 two 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 a significant portion of the general population, mainly women.
• Now with newer, more accurate echocardiographic criteria, it is thought to affect very few of the general population and it is most often diagnosed in people aged 20-40 years.
• Mitral valve prolapse also is called click-murmur syndrome, floppy mitral valve syndrome, and Barlow syndrome after the doctor who first described

Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is a heart valve abnormality. In mitral valve prolapse, the mitral valve does not work well because one or both leaflets of the valve are too large, which results in an uneven closer of the valve during each heartbeat.

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