The prevalence of mitral valve prolapse in patients undergoing echocardiography for clinical reason

Background: The prevalence of mitral valve prolapse (MVP) has been reported to be 2.4% according to the Framingham Heart Study. However larger trials have found the prevalence of MVP to be less than 1.5%. We studied the prevalence of MVP using a large echocardiographic database. Method: We retrospectively analyzed 24,265 echocardiograms performed between 1984 and 1998 for clinical reason. The total prevalence of MVP was calculated and stratified based on gender. Results: The database included 12,926 female and 11,339 male patients. The echocardiographic prevalence of MVP was 0.4% in females and 0.7% in males. The prevalence was 0.6% overall. Conclusion: In the largest sample studied to date, the prevalence of MVP was lower than what was previously reported, with similar findings in both genders.