Clinical features of mitral valve prolapse associated with low body weight

An association between mitral valve prolapse (MVP) and low body weight has been well documented in family,1 general population,2 and clinical3 studies. The low body weight of patients with MVP may exert a clinically beneficial effect by permitting lower levels of blood pressure in MVP patients than in comparable control subjects.1,4 The observation of a low prevalence of mitral clicks or murmurs in MVP patients, however, in 2 studies in which UVP was strongly associated with low body. weight2,5 has led some investigators to suggest that MVP in lean patients might represent a variant of normal devoid of the auscultatory features encountered in patients with clinically recqgnized MVP. To test this hypothesis, we related body habitus to auscultatory and other demographic and clinical features of MVP in consecutive adult family members documented to have MVP in a family study that has been previously reported in part.1,6–7