Mitral valve Proplapse

[Harmony]

Eight years ago at the age of 60 after having the flu I started to have severe sob. My PCP did a holter monitor on me and suggested I see a cardio. A friend who is a head nurse at Lenox Hill Hospital in NYC found a Cardio for me to see as I had never been to one . He diagnosed me with MVP told me it was very mild at the time and told me to take antibotics before dental visits and have an echo once a year. I was told it rarely progresses. Unfortunately mine has progressed and I have severe regurg now . I am sure I will probably need surgery and maybe should have had it already. However my question is this. For years I had complained about chest pains and many of the other symptoms so they kept taking ekg's and siaid my heart was good no problems. I have been seeing the same PCP for 15 years and my ekgs are always the same. Until four years ago you could not even hear a click with a stethoscope. I know that MVP is something you are probably born with. I am trying to find out out why beore 8 years ago I never knew I had this. Matter of fact I never heard of MVP . I am the type of person who does not neglect my health and see a doctor when I feel ill. Is it possible MVP is not always present at birth and can happen latter in life. None of the many Cardios or surgeons I have seen in the past year can give me an answer. wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this.
Thank You

If this makes any difference I am female 5'8 135lbs, bp usually 110/60 body temp. 97, the only bad medical problem I have is migraines and headaches and have them as long as I remember

 

[bvdr]

Hi Harmony,

Welcome to VR.com. and I hope you make yourself very comfortable and plan on spending some time here as you become more and more knowledgeable about your condition. Valve problems sometimes initially get discovered when someone has an unrelated acute illness. You probably were compensating fine until you had a much higher than usual demand put on your body.

My mom has MVP and has known about it since she was about 50. She has periodically had sharp pains and at times palpitations and as far as I know has never had an echo. Her other medical problems would prevent her from having surgery so I doubt she will ever have one done. She is now 81.

For some people, like yourself, MVP is much different and requires intervention. You may never really know the origin but you can track it from here on out. Make sure you start your own personal file that houses copies of the results of every test you have and before long you will become an expert on your personal condition. It is not as hard as it sounds. You will learn the language of valve conditions and be able to obtain the material and facts necessary to make very informed decisions.

Please take advantage of the wealth of information located on this board. If you can't locate something then ask. You will find the boards here to be very active and many of us have become as close as family. We all help each other around here.

 

[Marty]

Delayed diagnosis?

Delayed diagnosis?

Harmony, your history is quite common.I was an enlisted man in WW11 and then went to school on the GI Bill and back in as an airforce flight surgeon for 10 more years and passed all physicals.
After I got out in 1961 an insurance doctor detected the click the first time and I went through a complete heart workup at Georgetown. They said it was a harmless functional thing and I got my insurance at standard rate.Iwas getting some symptoms even back then which I decided were probably
psychosomatic and ignored. In the early 70's Dr. Barlow from South Africa published his seminal work defining MVP and even described people with our symptoms now called Barlow's syndrome.Its true most people with MVP never need surgery but a % of us develop myxomatous degeneration and go into severe regurgitation. By 1998 when I was 72 I was going downhill fast with a severe machinery murmur. The surgery was a life saver and I feel better now at 78 than I did at 58.When I graduated in 1952 almost all mitral regurg was secondary to rheumatic fever. Today with the country aging and with antibiotics holding down rheumatic fever complications almost all the regurg is secondary to MVP complicated by myxomatous degeneration. My valve and chordae tendindinae were so gelatinous that a repair was out of the question. I am a great believer in early rather than later surgery. Your annual echo will tell them when its time.Your basic question asks " Is it it present at birth or does it develop later?" I think it is present at birth but it takes time to get bad enough where the click can be detected and symptoms occur. Good echos can now detect it quite early. Surgery is recommended when the left atrium begins to dilate and the ejection fraction deteriorates.