Apex-carotis diagram as related to systolic and diastolic time intervals in mitral valve prolapse syndrome.

The electrocardiogram, phonocardiogram, carotid pulse tracing and apexcardiogram were simultaneously obtained in 25 patients with mitral valve prolapse syndrome and in 62 normal subjects. This allowed us to measure systolic and diastolic time intervals and to construct the apexcarotis diagram (ACD), a new mechanocardiographic method which integrated the catotid pulse tracing and the apexcardiogram in an orthogonal coordinate system. In mitral valve prolapse syndrome, the ACD showed curve of the segment of slow ventricular ejection (S-AC) to the right, and a decrease of the field of ventricular ejection. The measurement of time intervals gave statistically significant information on Q-I and A2-OS intervals.