PHYSIOPATHOLOGICAL CONCEPTS OF MITRAL VALVULAR DISEASE

Abstract

The opportunity to study the case histories of a large series of patients treated surgically for mitral valvular disease inspired us to analyze certain phenomena observed in the living heart and to correlate the findings with the information that was available at the time preoperative diagnoses were made. The purpose of the study was to provide data that would result in a more sound approach to the diagnosis and understanding of disease of the mitral valve. Unfortunately, any analysis of this kind can amount to little more than an approach to the general problem. Our interest has centered on the frequency of intracardiac thrombosis as it occurs in the various mitral lesions and those factors that bear a cause-and-effect relationship. In this analysis, however, other facts that are not strictly pertinent to the main theme have been accumulated. Since some of these additional data are of general interest, they also