Dr.S.Venkatesan MD

Mitral valve prolapse  probably is the most common cause for  abnormal added  sounds in cardiac auscultation . MVPS occurs  when  mitral valve tissue  and its accessories  overgrow disproportionately    with reference to  the mitral valve orifice (Also referred to elongated or redundant leaflet) .The net mass  of mitral valve apparatus has an inverse relationship with  LV  cavity volume . Because of  excess motion  ,  leaflet may bulge into left atrium to different degrees and different angulations. This entity  as rule is  benign  in most people . Still ,  rampant diagnosis in the community  (With the  pathological proliferation of   scan centers  )  has raised considerable anxiety .

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Hence , the criteria  to  diagnose MVPS are made stricter .Unless the leaflets are thickened and some degree of MR  occurs the  usage of the term MVPS  is  not justified .

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Unusual  sounds in MVPS

In many patients ,  AML become so nimble ,  it flexes, bends and   stretches  in both systole and diastole. These leaflets   can generate clicks  not only during  prolapse . Simple folding and unfolding of  long redundant  is known  to produce clicks.

generally folding occurs in diastole and unfolding in systole ( of course in extreme redundancy  both can occur in both phases )

This diastolic  clicks in MVPS has been reported rarely  in literature . It is   more common than we realise .The timing  of these clicks  are  not constant .Audibility is low .It can easily  be confused with opening snap of mitral stenosis .

The spatial  relationship between the sound generation and the anatomical prolapse  does not match . It is always  possible  when  PML prolapses  AML may generate a click and vise versa . Diastolic clicks or opening snaps  are known to occur in some of the severe forms of MVPS.  The first heart sound is not only loud  , the  differential  motion AML and PML  may distort  two componets of  M1  .It needs to be emphasized the loudness  of  S1  can be  preserved even in the presence of significant MR .(Even as the PML prolapses  causing MR ,  an  elongated  AML continues to generate a booming S 1)

Final message

Can MVPS produce diastolic added sounds ?   Yes . . . it can .

Mid systolic click  , and  late systolic murmur  is the classical  manifestation of MVPS . In reality , one can get a variety of noises from prolapsing mitral valve apparatus in both phases of cardiac cycle.

Reference 

These are all inferred from bed side observation . Luckily  I have found a  reference from a New york state journal of medicine .Other wise my observations would have been ridiculed .  Gone are the days   when we spend  hours together  in  clinical auscultation  of mitral valve motion  .

Today we are  in the era  , working in hi- tech cath labs ,  aiming  to  capture those same  redundant  mitral leaflets  with catheters  and clip its wings to reduce the mitral regurgitation  .

Asking for a phon0-cardiographic  documentation of diastolic mitral click in MVPS    would be a laughing stock among current generation cardiologists  !  Still I would argue for such a study !