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Functional ischemic mitral regurgitation (MR) is associated with increased mortality in patients with coronary disease. However, whether annuloplasty at the time of surgical revascularization improves long-term outcomes in such patients is unclear. To explore this issue, researchers analyzed outcomes retrospectively in 390 Cleveland Clinic patients with severe (grade 3+ or 4+) MR who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting with (n=290) or without (n=100) mitral annuloplasty from 1991 to 2003.
Almost 50% of patients without annuloplasty had severe MR at 1 year, compared with about 10% of patients with annuloplasty (although at 5 years, the proportion of annuloplasty recipients with severe MR had increased to about 20%). Despite the decrease…