[Course of telesystolic mitral insufficiency. Apropos of a case followed for 7 years and operated on].

One case followedup for 7 years with progressive intensification of regurgitation, requiring a surgical operation at the age of 48 years, brings its contribution to knowledge of the natural history of late systolic mitral incompetence and of the anatomical lesions causing it. The presence of prolapsed posterior leaflet, of stretched chordae tendinae, of both septal and parietal muscle hypertrophy with biloculation of the ventricular cavity were suggested by angiocardiography and confirmed by operation. A review of the literature reporting the cases with operative or post-mortem verification poses the unresolved question of the diagnostic criteria of late systolic mitral incompetence at the stage of cardiac failure.