Prevalence of unsuspected and significant mitral and aortic regurgitation.
OBJECTIVE
We sought to determine the prevalence of unsuspected, pre-existing valvular regurgitation in a large, heterogeneous population of patients referred for an echocardiogram.


METHODS
The echocardiograms of 6851 consecutive individuals without suspected valve disease were reviewed. Regurgitant severity was graded using a clinical composite of published methods and multiple logistic analyses were used to model various clinical variables.


RESULTS
The overall prevalence of moderate or greater mitral regurgitation (MR) was 11.7% in male patients and 12.5% in female patients. For mild or greater aortic insufficiency (AI), the prevalence was 18.9% in male patients and 19.7% in female patients. Both MR and AI increased exponentially as a function of age. Female sex predicted MR, but AI was sex neutral. Regurgitant severity increased with decreasing ejection fraction and body mass index, a history of hypertension, the presence of left ventricular hypertrophy, and valvular abnormalities.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of unsuspected MR and AI is substantial, increases exponentially with age, and is predicted by commonly used clinical variables.
Stefano
Gregory
G
Department of Medicine, University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio 44106-5038, USA.
Fox
Keith
K
Schluchter
Mark
M
Hoit
Brian D
BD
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001022:Aortic Valve Insufficiency / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000473:pathology; D004452:Echocardiography; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications; D017379:Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008944:Mitral Valve Insufficiency / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology; D015995:Prevalence; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012737:Sex Factors