Hypomastia and Mitral-Valve Prolapse

To the Editor: In the November 17 issue Rosenberg et al. 1 report an interesting association between mitral-valve prolapse and hypomastia. Although the authors interpret their data as supporting the hypothesis that cardiac and systemic manifestations of mitral-valve prolapse reflect disruption of simultaneously occurring processes during embryologic life, we believe that an alternative explanation of the association may be more likely. It was initially proposed, on the basis of clinical observation and systematic comparison of patients with and without mitral prolapse, 2 , 3 that persons with prolapse tended to be thin or asthenic. Two lines of evidence have confirmed this association. Family studies . . . No extract is available for articles shorter than 400 words.