Mechanisms of mitral valvar insufficiency in children and adolescents with severe rheumatic heart disease: an echocardiographic study with clinical and epidemiological correlations.

We carried out a detailed clinical, epidemiological, and echocardiographic study in 41 patients < or = 14 years of age who were admitted in a public hospital in Salvador, Brazil, with severe rheumatic heart disease. Mitral insufficiency was severe in 90%, and moderate in 10%, of the patients. A posteriorly directed jet was seen in 93% of the patients.