Myofibroblastic proliferation on mitral valve chordae tendineae: a distinctive lesion associated with XXXX .

@entity1 @entity32 @entity82 @entity5881 @entity2362 @entity409 @entity99
Hearts from 1,676 consecutive autopsies were examined over a 4 1/2 year period between 1980 and 1984. Forty-seven (4.3%) of 1,083 adult hearts were found to have from one to nine distinctive bulbous thickenings (BTs) involving the mitral valve chordae tendineae. By light- and electron-microscopy, the BTs were found to consist of numerous myofibroblasts, collagen, and @entity2362 layered over otherwise normal chordae and occasionally involving adjacent valve leaflets. No evidence of @entity32 , rheumatic or otherwise, was found in histologic sections of the mitral, aortic, and tricuspid valves, or in samples of myocardium from all chambers. No BT was present in 593 hearts from @entity1 and @entity1 , indicating that the lesions were acquired. Review of autopsy diagnoses showed that 14 (29.8%) of the 47 @entity1 with BT had @entity99 or @entity82 , as opposed to 80 (7.7%) of the 1,036 @entity1 without BT. This difference was highly statistically significant (P less than 0.01). The prevalence of viral @entity409 was similar in the two groups. Of all @entity1 with @entity5881 , those with BT tended to be male and older. BT appears to be a distinctive process that is strongly correlated with @entity5881 .
