Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 1998, 185 (1)

Echocardiographic Evaluation of Cardiac Valvular Abnormalities in Adults with Down's Syndrome

TOSHIHIKO HAMADA, FUMITAKE GEJYO, YOSHIFUMI KOSHINO,2 TETSUHITO MURATA,1 MASAO OMORI,1 MASASHI NISHIO,1 TOSHIHIRO MISAWA3 and KIMINORI ISAKI1

Departments of Clinical and Laboratory Medicine and 1Departments of Neuropsychiatry, Fukui Medical University, Fukui 910-1194, 2Department of Neuropsychiatry, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa 920-8641, and 3Department of Internal Medicine, Fukui General Hospital, Fukui 910-0067

  • It is well known that congenital heart abnormalities are common in children with Down's syndrome. However there are few studies on cardiac abnormalities in adults with Down's syndrome. Therefore, we estimated cardiac abnormalities by means of echocardiography in 30 institutionalized Japanese adults with Down's syndrome, but without cardiac symptoms. Two-dimensional echocardiography showed an incidence of 26.7% in mitral valve prolapse and 20% increase of echo brightness in the mitral valve. Doppler echocardiography revealed an incidence of 16.7% in mitral valve regurgitation, and 13.3% in aortic valve regurgitation. Thus, even adults with Down's syndrome who are apparently free of cardiac symptoms may be at risk for valvular disease.
    Key words--- Down's syndrome; mitral valve prolapse; mitral regurgitation; Doppler echocardiography
    © 1998 Tohoku University Medical Press

    Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 1998, 185, 31-35
    Address for reprints: Toshihiko Hamada, Departments of Clinical and Laboratory Medicine, Fukui Medical University, 23 Shimoaizuki Matsuoka, Fukui 910-1194, Japan.
    e-mail: thamada@fmsrsa.fukui-med.ac.jp

    Back to CONTENTS.