Clinical Significance Introduction Mitral valve prolapse is frequently diagnosed in healthy people and is, for the most part, harmless.
Most people suffer no symptoms whatsoever from mitral valve prolapse.
Estimates are that 1 in 10 to 1 in 20 individuals has mitral valve prolapse. Mitral valve prolapse can be present from birth or develop at any age. It occurs in both men and women, but is more common in women. Mitral valve prolapse is one of the most frequently made cardiac diagnoses in the United States. Although in general healthy hearts are structurally similar, like other parts of the body, there are individual variations.