Assessment and timing to intervention of mitral regurgitation

Abstract

There is no doubt about the fact that mitral regurgitation (MR) is one of the most frequent and challenging diagnosis in daily work in any echocardiography lab. Chronic organic MR, due to increasing prevalence of myxomatous disease and the increasing mean age of population, is presenting as often as aortic stenosis: moderate or severe MR is found in 1.7% of the general population and in up to 9.3% of those over 75 years (Iung and Vahanian 2011). Echocardiography is the main tool for MR evaluation. In the modern times of mitral valve (MV) repair surgery, echocardiography has become even more important because the study has to cover not only the MR diagnosis, but the evaluation of the valvular lesions and the mechanisms of disease to guide the election between the different therapeutic options. This combination of aspects related to the complexity of mitral regurgitation is the primary driving force to develop an all encompassing assessment of MR to allow the clinician and surgeon to achieve the superior clinical outcomes.