cause of death in marfan

Robbin's says aortic rupture is most common cause of death. I think you're right about prolapse being more common. Cardiac failure is the cause of death less commonly than dissection, though.

In the margin (thus, HY), Goljan has aortic dissection as the most common cause of death in Marfan and Ehlers-Danlos. I have no idea which one is more common, mitral valve prolapse or aortic dissection, however.

surebreC said:

Sudden death is due to prolapse, but aortic rupture is more common overall (I dont have a source to cite for this but I'm pretty sure it's correct).

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I think he said in his audio lectures that "sudden death" was most often due to prolapse. Death from dissection is not "sudden".

I would go with dissection since robbins and UW both say that is the most common cause.

My understanding is that the most common cause of death is dissection.

And the most common cause of "sudden" death is conduction abnormalities due to mitral valve prolapse.

By definition Sudden Cardiac death is death with in an hour of cardiac symptoms. I think that includes both arrhythmias and aoritc dissection.


What I think is in Adults aortic dissection is more likely cause of death because they have time to develop fibrocystic change in the aorta, while in children prolapse is more common because they haven't developed the fibrocystic change yet.

JDWflash44 said:

My understanding is that the most common cause of death is dissection.

And the most common cause of "sudden" death is conduction abnormalities due to mitral valve prolapse.

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I think both aortic dissection and mitral valve prolapse can cause sudden death. I always learned that aortic dissection was the most common cause of death in Marfan syndrome. The Mayo clinic agrees (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/marfan-syndrome/DS00540/DSECTION=7).

Actually, the #1 cause is suicide after the tall skinny guy with long fingers gets tired of being asked if he has marfan's.

Every tall person at my school had to go through a Marfan Inquisition pretty regularly.

Mediculous said:

Every tall person at my school had to go through a Marfan Inquisition pretty regularly.

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Haha, that happens on a regular basis at my school too.