Physiological mitral regurgitation is NOT mild MR

Dr Benoy Shah delivered an interesting and fun talk at the Royal Society of Medicine’s ‘Advanced Imaging’ course today, in which he indirectly addressed a question previously discussed in this blog – is mild mitral regurgitation normal?

He supported the argument made in the previous article on this topic in saying that closing jets – or so-called ‘physiological’ mitral regurgitation – should never be reported as mild mitral regurgitation. Doing so causes confusion and unnecessary follow-ups when, for example, the patient’s records are passed onto a new GP who sees “mild mitral regurgitation” in the notes and sends the patient for a repeat echocardiogram.

Clarity and consistency in terminology is key not only in communication with patients, but also with other medical professionals. Just as physiological or trivial MR should never be termed “mild,” so physicians should be careful not to confuse the issue by claiming that mild MR is “normal.”