For years, cardiology experts have been arguing about how to determine the degree of severity in patients with functional mitral regurgitation and, hence, to assess when it is necessary to operate on the valve. It is all about how much blood "should be allowed" to flow back through the leaky valve: Currently, surgery is only performed in the U.S. at 60 ml but at 30 ml in Europe, according to Philipp Bartko and Georg Goliasch (Department of Medicine II). In a study performed by cardiologists at MedUni Vienna and Vienna General Hospital, they have now shown the exact relationship between the amount of refluxing blood and patient survival, thereby establishing a new limit for optimal classification with a view to valve surgery.
* This article was originally published here
