Ring L, et al. - Researchers ascertained if an assessment of left atrial (LA) function helps identify patients at risk for early deterioration during follow-up with mitral valve prolapse and mitral regurgitation. From a dedicated clinical database, patients with moderate to severe mitral regurgitation but no guideline-based indications for surgery were retrospectively identified. The sample consisted of one hundred seventeen patients. It was observed in the findings that LA function was independently correlated with surgery-free survival in patients with mitral valve prolapse and moderate to severe mitral regurgitation. In these patients, quantitative assessment of LA function might have clinical utility in guiding early surgical intervention.