CLINICAL SECTION   

Medicina dello Sport 2000 March;53(1):41-7

Copyright © 2000 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Mitral valve prolapse: characters and 5-year follow-up of an athlete population and comparison with athletes with minimal mitral valve prolapse

Poletti G., Soldati A., Speziale F., Cellini M., Brunelli D.

Centro di Medicina dello Sport, Azienda USL Bologna Sud - Casalecchio di Reno (BO)

In accordance with the recent restricting Protocol of SIEC (The Italian Society of Cardiology) on mitral-valve prolapse, we have analyzed a population of athletes visited in the last 15 years at the Centre of Sports Medicine of Casalecchio di Reno in order to detect the so-called “minimal” and “true” forms of mitral valve prolapse.
Beside the study on prolapse prevalence we also compared the two types of mitral valve prolapse in order to examine possible complications in both groups.
The prevalence of mitral valve prolapse was one of lowest in literature (1.12%), mainly concerning male athletes. In comparing the two forms of prolapse, we observed that sympthoms and ventricular arrhythmias were more frequent and more serious in athletes with “true” mitral valve prolapse.
A 5-year follow-up showed a more serious evolution of arrhythmias in classic mitral valve prolapse (30.77%).
The authors consider, therefore, the SIEC new Protocol very useful in the judgment of sports fitness of those athletes with mitral valve prolapse and arrhythmic complications; a six-month eligibility ia recommended in order to check its possible degeneration.