Mitral annulus motion as a predictor of mortality in a community-based sample of 75-year-old men and women.

Mitral annulus motion (MAM) is a predictor of mortality in selected patient groups, but its prognostic value in less selected populations is not known. In a community-based random sample of 75-year-old men and women (n = 408), left ventricular function was measured as: (1) maximum amplitude of MAM; and (2) wall-motion index. During a median follow-up of 7.2 years, 83 persons died (26 from cardiac causes). Left ventricular function as measured by MAM predicted the risk of all-cause and cardiac mortality independently of other potential risk factors in this community-based sample. Regarding cardiac mortality, the predictive ability of MAM was also independent of left ventricular systolic function measured as wall-motion index. MAM may prove to be a valuable complement to other echocardiographic methods in the assessment of prognosis in less selected populations.