Catheter repair of mitral valve improves heart size, symptoms

A catheter-mounted device that acts like a clothespin to clip together the flaps of a leaky heart valve is not only reducing the abnormal backflow of blood from the left ventricle to the left atrium, it is helping to shrink the enlarged, overworked heart and relieving symptoms of fluid overload—all without open-chest surgery. These are the one-year findings in a small group of patients enrolled in the Endovascular Valve Edge-to-Edge Repair Study (EVEREST), which is evaluating the use of the MitraClip for the treatment of mitral regurgitation (MR).