Death sentence?

[Sherri]

I know that your doctor's answer this question ALL the time, however I have a source which has upset me.  I know that everyone says MVP is not related to sudden death, but there is a website (www.emedicine.com- I believe) where a DR at the Med. College of ohio and Saint Vincent Med Center says that people w/ MVP are more prone to sudden death.  Granted, this is the ONLY site I have found that says this.  He seems to think that thickened, redundant, or more severely deformed valves put a person at very high risk for sudden death.  He also says that mitral regurgitation is more serious than everyone makes it out to be and everyone w/ even slight MR should not exercise.  This is frightening to me because I am a young person and I am afraid that having MVP is more serious than I think.  My dr. told me I had no restrictions, due to the fact that my case is mild.  Any thoughts on this?  What do you think?   THANK YOU SO MUCH for taking your time with this forum!

[Cleveland Clinic, MD]

I'm not sure what study the author was refering to but the current opinion is that there is no increase in the risk of adverse consequences in persons with MVP.  For a recent article on the prevalence and complications see New England Journal of Medicine Vol 341; p 1- 7;1999.

[Nathan Jones]

I was diagnosed several years ago with MVP w/regurtitation.  I exercise extensively.  The leaking valve was watched for several years by my cardiologist and we decided on surgery about a year ago and all is well.

     I researched the questions you asked quite extensively prior to my surgery and came to the following general conclusions.

     1.  There is a higher incidence of sudden death among those who have MVP but there does not appear to be any casualty.  i.e. the mpv is not the cause of the sudden death, it is commonly related to HOCM or arrythmias and people who have these conditios seem to have a higher incidence of mvp.  however if an individual only has mvp there is not a higher incidence of death.  This is a case where the statistics don't tell the full story unless they are investigated.


     2.  Most people feel better with exercise rather than without it, even if you have mitral regurgiation.  The person you spoke with may have been confused about mitral stenosis (where the vavle is constricted) in which case exercise is generally prohibited.  Exercise with stenosis could be dangerous but usually exercise with regurtigation is not.

     3.  Prior to my surgery I lifed weights 2-3 times per week, rowed competitively 4x per week and did additional exercise 2-4 times per week.  The mitral regurgigation limits the ability to perform at maximul level but the exercise itself was not prohibited.  My cardiologist indicated that he would prohibit some activities such as scuba diving where if a mitral valve rupture occurred, it could be fatal because the person might not get to the surface in time.  My cardiologist generally felt that even if the mitral valve ruptured, (a conditiion seldom seen) I would not die but would require relatively immediate surgery.

     4.  Talk to a cardiologist and if they can rule out the other items which might cause sudden death, you can relax even with MVP and even with some regurgitation.  You might need to take antibotics before any surgical procedures, including dental teeth cleaning.


Goood Luck

[christian]

My 26-year-old wife has had mitral valve regurgitation caused by MVP all of her life (she was born with it), and it's been severe regurgitation for at least 12 years.  She has no symptoms whatsoever and no significant heart dilation.  She's been told by her three doctors, including a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, that exercise is fine -- even helpful, but no competitive athletics and no heavy weight training.  Hope that helps.

[Stan H.]

The study you refer to was done by a Japanese physician several years ago and indicated a statistically higher rate of sudden death among people with MVP.  I'm sorry I can't remember the doctor's name, but I did read his paper.  Several follow-up studies were done by different doctors and were unable to establish a similar relationship.  The original report is generally discounted since the results could not be replicated.

[Lauren]

Thank you all so much for your comments!  I really appreciate your support.  It is good to know that there are other people who have shared in my experiences and can offer advice.  My cardiologist says that I am clear to do whatever I would like, and that my case is very mild.  I'm sure you all know the feeling of being diagnosed with MVP and being skeptical about what a dr. tells you.  Sometimes I feel like I am just looking for something or someone to say "you're going to die"- I know that sounds crazy, but even though I do not want to hear that, it's almost like I try to make myself believe it (crazy, I know)  Anyway, I have been active for many years and I continue to exercise.  When I was younger the doctor could hear my heart murmur, but didn't do any tests and he said it should go away as I got older.  Therefore, I played several competitive sports in High School in which I did intense cardio. training for the entire year and basically forgot about my heart " problem."  I never had any problems untill recently when I was under intense stress and I had all the symptoms of mvp, they did an echo and EKG, and guess what?----MVP!!!  Right now I am in the stage of just learning to cope w/ my symptoms and stress- thank you guys for your help!!!!  God Bless you

[Cleveland Clinic, MD]

Thanks to all for the info and comments.

[nick rosato]

i have all these symptons i feel better now after reading on this site

[Cleveland Clinic, MD]

That's why we're here.  Thanks for the feedback.