Mitral insufficiency Mitral insufficiency Mitral regurgitation (MR), Mitral insufficiency (abbreviation MI best avoided because it is more commonly used in lieu of myocardial infarction), or mitral incompetence is a disorder of the heart in which the mitral valve does not close properly when the heart pumps out blood. It is the abnormal leaking of blood backwards from the left ventricle, through the mitral valve, into the left atrium, when the left ventricle contracts, i.e. there is regurgitation of blood back into the left atrium. MR is the most common form of valvular heart disease. The symptoms associated with MR are dependent on
Mitral insufficiency broad, notched P waves in several or many leads with a prominent late negative component to the P wave in lead V, and may be seen in MI, but also in mitral stenosis, and, potentially, any cause of overload of the left atrium. Thus, "P-sinistrocardiale" may be a more appropriate term. The degree of severity of MR can be quantified by the regurgitant fraction, which is the percentage of the left ventricular stroke volume that regurgitates into the left atrium. where V and V are, respectively, the volumes of blood that flow forward through the mitral valve and aortic valve