IMR Press / RCM / Volume 23 / Issue 9 / DOI: 10.31083/j.rcm2309295
Open Access Review
Mitral Valve Prolapse and Mitral Annular Disjunction Arrhythmic Syndromes: Diagnosis, Risk Stratification and Management
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1 Second Department of Cardiology, Evangelismos General Hospital of Athens, 10676 Athens, Greece
2 Arrhythmia Unit, Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, 17674 Athens, Greece
3 Tianjin Key Laboratory of Ionic-Molecular Function of Cardiovascular Disease, Department of Cardiology, Tianjin Institute of Cardiology, Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, 300211 Tianjin, China
*Correspondence: k.letsas@gmail.com; letsas@ocsc.gr (Konstantinos P. Letsas)
Academic Editor: Alessandro Zorzi
Rev. Cardiovasc. Med. 2022, 23(9), 295; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.rcm2309295
Submitted: 30 May 2022 | Revised: 26 June 2022 | Accepted: 11 July 2022 | Published: 5 September 2022
Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Although mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is usually considered a benign clinical condition, it has been linked with ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death in patients with a certain “arrhythmic” phenotype, raising awareness and mandating a specific risk stratification protocol. Mitral annular disjunction (MAD) is considered a “red flag” in malignant MVP syndrome along with bileaflet myxomatous prolapse, female gender, negative or biphasic T waves in the inferior leads, fibrosis in the papillary muscles or inferobasal wall detected by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and complex arrhythmias of right bundle branch morphology. MAD seems to play a critical role in the chain of morphofunctional abnormalities which lead to increased mechanical stretch and subsequent fibrosis mainly in the papillary muscles, forming the vulnerable anatomic substrate prone to arrhythmogenesis, and associated with long-term severe ventricular arrhythmias. Arrhythmogenesis in MVP/MAD patients is not fully understood but a combination between a substrate and a trigger has been established with premature ventricular contraction triggered ventricular fibrillation being the main mechanism of sudden cardiac death (SCD). Certain characteristics mostly recognized by non-invasive imaging modalities serve as risk factors and can be used to diagnose and identify high risk patients with MAD, while treatment options include catheter ablation, device therapy and surgical intervention. This review focuses on the clinical presentation, the arrhythmogenic substrate, and the incidence of ventricular arrhythmias and SCD in MAD population. The current risk stratification tools in MAD arrhythmogenic entity are discussed.

Keywords
mitral annular disjunction
mitral valve prolapse
ventricular arrhythmias
sudden cardiac death
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