Evaluation of the association of mitral valve prolapse in patients with Wolff-Parkinson-White type ECG and its relationship to the ventricular activation pattern

The association of mitral valve prolapse (MVP) and Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome was examined using simultaneous two-dimenslonal and M-mode echocardiography. Twelve-lead electrocardiograms (ECGs) and two-dimensional echocardiograms (2DEs) were recorded in 24 patients with WPW. The location of the accessory pathway was predicted from the ECG as being in one of 10 possible sites correlating the delta wave polarity with epicardial mapping. Nineteen of the 24 patients had conduction via the accessory pathway and five were conducting normally during the recording of the echocardiogram. Mitral valve prolapse was found in 13 of the 19 patients conducting via the accessory pathway. The only WPW patient with mitral valve prolapse during normal conduction had a chest deformity which has an independent association with mitral prolapse. No association was found between the prediction of the accessory pathway and the presence of mitral prolapse. We concluded that consideration should be given to the possibility that some patients demonstrating MVP do so as the result of the altered sequence of ventricular activation, rather than as the result of a structural abnormality.