I just had an EKG-ultrasound test that showed MVP. I’ve been having symptoms of what I thought was heart trouble for a few years and something finally showed up! (Not that I’m pleased, but I was starting to feel foolish when the doc I was going to couldn’t find a reason for the tachycardia I’ve been having).
I’m particularly interested about symptoms other MVPers may have. I’m reading some intriguing stuff about the condition.
Yep. I think it’s fairly common. For me, it just means I have to make sure to take antibiotics before getting my teeth cleaned.
What symptoms are you experiencing that you think are due to the MVP?
Well, the arrythmia and chest pains, primarily. I’m also wondering if the dull ache I get underneath one of my shoulderblades when I lie down is somehow connected to MVP. The good doctor I just went to also said that MVP is associated with idiopathic responses to Benadryl, sudafed, ephederine (sp) and sensitivity to alcohol . . . all of which I’ve always experienced.
I’ve also been reading (damn internet!) that the syndrome might be associated with panic attacks, anxiety, and depression – all stuff I’ve dealt with on and off throughout my life. It seems, however, that the medical evidence for this connection isn’t entirely proven.
Interesting. What sort of responses do you have to the first three? I find Benadryl and Sudafed just make me feel wonky without significantly reducing my symptoms, so I rarely take them, but I think that’s pretty normal. I have no sensitivity to alcohol that I’m aware of, although I’m a pretty big guy which probably helps.
I’ve seen this too, and don’t really know what to think. I don’t really fall into this category myself, but that doesn’t really mean anything. I’d imagine this is an area where drawing a clear statistical correlation is quite difficult.
By the way, for those unfamiliar with the term, Mitral Valve Prolapse is simply a common type of heart murmur.
I have it, but have never had any problems from it that I know of. I do have an irregular heartbeat briefly at times, especially when bending over, and have to take prophylactic antibiotics for dentistry, but that’s it. The last time I had an EKG, it was abnormal, but the doc said it was the MVP- which was strange because it had never affected an EKG before.
A couple years ago I did go for a stress test due to a family history of Marfan’s (ever been tested for that, Giraffe?), and it did show MVP, but nothing else.
Benadryl and Sudafed-like products that are supposed to be sedating instead make me wired and I have shortness of breath and wild heart rhythms. Alcohol, especially beer, gives me weird arrythmia and shortness of breath.
I agree that the stats with MVP and mental health issues would be pretty woolly to nail down.
Mitral valve prolapse is a harmless, benign condition for 98% of the people who have it. And as for the other two percent, most really have significant mitral regurgitation, with the prolapse being incidental.
MVP was wildly overdiagnosed in the 1980’s. Now it’s estimated to occur in about 1 out of 50 people.
Most people with MVP do not need antibiotic prophyllaxis.
A number of people have had serious symptoms erroniously attributed to MVP, when the MVP was really not responsible for what they were complaining about.
http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/articles/598.html (patient education)
Mitral Valve Prolapse: Practice Essentials, Background, Pathophysiology (review article)
I was diagnosed with MVP in my early 20s, after a bout of several days of heart arrythmias. They tried beta blockers on me for a week or two, but they made me feel even worse - my blood pressure is normally on the low side, and the drugs made me feel woozier than the heart palpitations. I was told to lay off the caffeine; I’ve always been sensitive to it, and anything more than 1 - 2 cups of coffee in a day will make me completely loopy.
The palpitations popped up again a few years later during grad school finals, and a milder version will pop up once in a while when I’ve been burning the candle at both ends. Also, whatever the ingredient is that they’ve substituted in cold medicine for the pseudoephedrine makes me feel really sick. Other than that, though, most of the time I’m fine.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go pop 2000 mg of amoxicillin in preparation for my dentist appointment in an hour. QtM, which people do or don’t have to do prophylactic antibiotics? Lord only knows where the records of the testing they did are now - the HMO went out of business, and I’m not up for thousands of dollars in tests to figure out whether I should take 1 dose of antibiotics twice a year.
I’ve been so diagnosed. For me it’s irregular heartbeats. I took up jogging and it helped with the symptoms. Ditto on the antibiotic prophyllaxis.
I’ve also had panic associated problems in the past. Interestingly the panic attacks, anxiety, and depression got markedly better as the prolapse symptoms eased.
Depends on what your echocardiogram looks like, combined with what your heart sounds like. From the emedicine link above:
Prophylaxis is not necessary for the vast majority of folks diagnosed with MVP. Frankly, not much of anything is necessary for the vast majority of them, other than avoiding things that seem to trigger symptoms, like cardiac irritants (caffeine, decongestants, alcohol).
I have an irregular heart-beat problem (sometimes irregular, sometimes really fast) and also a murmur. I don’t take prophylactic antibiotics, but do take beta blockers. Don’t know if I have MVP or not, as they didn’t really say. And I can handle caffeine just fine. DON’T TAKE MY COKES AWAY! 
Has this advice changed over the last 15-ish years? That’s how long ago it was diagnosed, and the doctor I had then told me to do the prophylactic antibiotics, but she didn’t go into any detail about what exactly showed on the echocardiogram. And for that matter, now that I think of it, the dentist’s office used to put a fluorescent yellow “Premedicate” reminder on the appointment reminder card, and grill you at the beginning of the appointment to make sure you had. Today they didn’t mention it at all.
<<shrug>>
During the great MVP diagnosis craze, a lot of people just automatically got slapped with the “MVP: Needs prophylaxis” stickers, without any thought. It’s taken time for cooler heads to prevail. That, and a push to cut back on unnecessary use of antibiotics.