Polycystic Kidney Disease

To the Editor: An increased prevalence of aortic incompetence and mitral-valve prolapse has been described previously in patients with polycystic kidney disease. 1 Hossack et al. (Oct. 6 issue) 2 reported a large-scale study done on a prospective basis and employing Doppler echocardiography. The authors contend that they found no association between mitral-valve prolapse and hypertension, a frequent complication of polycystic kidney disease. However, there was a history of hypertension in 56 percent of their subjects with polycystic kidney disease, 12 percent of the unaffected family members, and 12 percent of the controls (P