Association of ventricular late potentials with mitral regurgitation in patients with mitral valve prolapse

ABSTRACT

To determine association of ventricular late potentials with mitral valve regurgitation in patients with mitral valve prolapse. Descriptive cross sectional study. Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology/National Institute of Heart Diseases, Rawalpindi from May 2006 to February 2007. Thirty Seven Patients with confirmed diagnosis of mitral valve prolapse on 2 dimensional echo echocardiography were selected for the study. Patients having myocardial infarction, ischemic heart disease, hypertension and diabetes mellitus were excluded. Signal Averaged ECG of every patient was recorded using 1200 EPX High Resolution Electrocardiograph and was analyzed for the presence or otherwise of ventricular late potentials. Male to female ratio of study patients was 2314 with mean age of 26.27 +/- 6.18 years. Twelve patients out of 37 had mitral valve regurgitation. Out of these, 8 [67%] patients had ventricular late potentials on signal averaged ECG. Only 1 [4%] patient without mitral valve regurgitation showed ventricular late potentials. Association between ventricular late potentials and mitral regurgtation was found statistically significant [p = 0.001]. Ventricular late potentials are hghly associated with mitral valve regurgitation in patients with mitral valve prolapse. These can act as noninvasive predictors of ventricular tachyarrhythmias and sudden cardiac death in these patients