Giant left atrium associated with mitral valve prolapse.

Abstract

To the Editor: I thoroughly enjoyed Hurst’s dissertation on the etiology of a giant left atrium1 and concurred that a giant left atrium seldom results from severe mitral regurgitation due to a nonrheumatic cause such as mitral valve prolapse. Although I would never dare to challenge Dr Hurst on anything he said or wrote, because I consider him not only as the master clinician of the century but also as my mentor, I thought it might be of interest to point out that there were 2 cases reported in the literature of a giant left atrium associated with mitral valve prolapse.2,3⇓ The presentation in both cases was the Ortner syndrome. Ortner4 in 1897 described 2 patients with mitral stenosis and hoarseness …