People with a specific heart valve abnormality are at increased risk of severe heart rhythm disorders, even after successful valve surgery. This is according to a new study by Karolinska Institutet University Hospital and Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden published in European Heart Journal. The condition is more common in women and younger patients with valve disorder and may, at worst, lead to sudden cardiac arrest.
The annular breakdown of the mitral, MAD, is an abnormality of the heart in which the attachment of the mitral valve “slides”. In recent years, the situation has been linked to an increased risk of severe heart arrhythmias. Until now, it was not known whether the risk of arrhythmias disappears if the crazy is surgically corrected.
MAD is often associated with a heart disease called mitral valve prolapse, which affects 2.5 % of the population and causes a leak of one of the heart valves. This can lead to the blood to pump back to the heart, causing heart failure and arrhythmias. The disease can cause symptoms such as difficulty breathing and pulse.
Patients followed after surgery
In the current study, researchers at the Karolinska Institutet investigated the risk of cardiac arrhythmias in 599 patients with mitral valve prolapse who underwent heart surgery at Karolinska University Hospital between 2010 and 2022.
We are able to show that people with MAD have a significantly higher risk of suffering from abdominal arrhythmias, a dangerous type of heart rate disorder that at worst can lead to cardiac arrest in a subset of patients. “
Bahira Shahim, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Solna, Karolinska Institutet and Cardiologist at Karolinska University Hospital
People with crazy were more likely to be women and were on average eight years younger than those without crazy. They also had a more extensive disease of the mitral valve. Although surgery was successful in correction of crazy, these patients had more than three times the risk of abdominal arrhythmias over five years of follow -up compared to patients without preoperative crazy.
“Our results show that it is important to closely monitor patients with this condition, even after a successful business,” says Bahira Shahim.
Investigating several cases
The study has led to new cases that researchers are now being investigated further. One hypothesis is that crazy causes permanent changes to the heart muscle. Another is that Mad is a sign of an underlying heart disease. Researchers are now continuing to study the scars in the heart using MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and analyze tissue samples from the heart muscle.
The research was conducted by cardiologist and Associate Professor Bahira Shahim in close collaboration with Magnus Dalén, Associate Professor at Karolinska Institutet and cardiac surgeon at Karolinska University Hospital and Klara Lodin, a doctorate at Karolinska Institutet. It was used by Alf Funds, the Swedish Foundation Heart-Lung, the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Medical Research Society, the Swedish Medical Society and the Karolinska Institutet.
Source:
Magazine report:
Lodin, K., et al. (2025). Mit querd decay and mitral valve prolapse: long -term risk of abdominal arrhythmias after surgery. European Heart Journal. doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehaf195.
