Abstract
Case presentation: A 62-year-old man visited his cardiologist describing a 6-month history of increasing fatigue and shortness of breath on exertion. His medical history included an inferoposterior myocardial infarction (MI) 3 years previously that was treated with drug-eluting stents to his left circumflex and right coronary arteries. The result of physical examination was remarkable for crackles audible throughout the lower half of both lung fields, an elevated jugular venous pulse to the angle of the jaw, and a grade 3/6 holosystolic murmur loudest at the apex with radiation to the left axilla. An echocardiogram revealed a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) of 15% to 20%, severe mitral regurgitation (MR), and a left ventricular end systolic dimension of 70 mm. The patient underwent a repeat cardiac angiogram that revealed patent stents in the circumflex and right coronary arteries and no other significant stenoses. The decision was made to surgically correct the patient’s MR with a mitral valve operation. He was brought to the operating room, where he was given general anesthesia, and a transesophageal echocardiogram was performed. Examination of the mitral valve revealed poor leaflet coaptation with a degree of leaflet tethering that resulted in severe MR. Inasmuch as the valve leaflets appeared structurally normal, a mitral valve repair procedure using a complete rigid annuloplasty ring was performed. A postoperative echocardiogram revealed trace MR, and the patient experienced no postoperative complications. This patient is a typical example of a growing problem in our aging population, namely, ischemic mitral regurgitation (IMR). IMR clearly has a negative impact on survival in patients with coronary artery disease, even in patients with mild to moderate MR; greater degrees of MR portend an even worse prognosis.1 With almost a fifth of patients who experience an MI followed by the development of IMR,2,3 and over …
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