Percutaneous Management of Mitral Valve Disease

Almost all cases of mitral stenosis are due to cardiac disease secondary to rheumatic fever and consequent rheumatic heart disease. Uncommon causes of mitral stenosis include calcification of the mitral valve leaflets and congenital heart disease including a parachute mitral valve. The natural history of rheumatic mitral stenosis is of an asymptomatic latent phase following the initial episode of rheumatic fever. This latent period lasts an average of 16 ± 5 years. Progressive and gradual commissural fusion eventually causes the characteristic symptoms and progression to severe disability may take 9 ± 4 years. Precipitous clinical presentation may occur at the onset of atrial fibrillation causing tachycardia or thromboembolic stroke.