Incidence of aortic cusp and mitral annulus calcification as determined by echocardiography: significance and interrelationship

M-mode and two-dimensional echocardiograms of 3,254 patients without evidence of rheumatic heart disease were evaluated retrospectively for evidence of aortic cusp calcification and mitral annulus calcification. Echographic evidence of mitral annulus calcification was found in 6.3% of the patients studied. In 375 patients with echographic evidence of aortic valve calcification, the incidence of mitral annulus calcification was 30.6% and it was more than twice as common in females (44.9%) as in males (19.2%). Mitral annulus calcification in patients with aortic cusp calcification was age- and gender-dependent. It occurred in 25% of women younger than 50, 50% of women over 60, and 60%Q of women over 80 years of age. The incidence in males was 28.5% and 27% in the 70s and 80s, respectively. There was no correlation between the severity of aortic valve calcification of stenosis and the incidence of mitral annulus calcification.
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