I was just reading the Annals of Internal Medicine when I came across an interesting article about mitral valve prolapse and its impact upon men and women ^[1]. The summary (below) is from a report titled “Sex Differences in Morphology and Outcomes of Mitral Valve Prolapse”.

Here are the key findings from the report:

• The researchers studied 4461 women and 3768 men in whom mitral valve prolapse (MVP) ^[1] was diagnosed on an echocardiogram obtained for some other reason between 1989 and 1998. The researchers compared features of MVP and used medical and death records to collect information about what happened to the men and women over time.
• When the researchers examined the features of MVP on the echocardiograms, they found that, compared with men, women generally had different and usually less severe valve abnormalities.
• Among patients with no or mild mitral regurgitation ^[2], women lived longer than men did, but among men and women who had severe mitral regurgitation ^[2], survival was better for men than for women. They also found that, among people with severe mitral regurgitation, men were more likely than women to have surgery.

Given the above, I was most curious about survival rates for men and women following mitral valve surgery – including repair and replacement. Ultimately, this study found that men and women have similar survival rates following mitral valve treatment.

Pretty interesting, right? To leave a comment, click here ^[3].

Keep on tickin!