From irritable heart to mitral valve prolapse—World War I, the British experience and Thomas Lewis

Abstract

The lineage of mitral valve prolapse and the mitral valve prolapse syndrome as described in the mid-late 1900s may be traced through the evolution of thought about functional heart disease as defined in the midlate 1800s. 1 A key issue in tracing this lineage involves the entity described by DaCosta 2 as “irritable heart” in the U.S. Civil War, and redefined in England as “soldier's heart” and the “effort syndrome” 3 during World War I. A key figure in the British experience with soldier's heart and the effort syndrome was Thomas Lewis.