Heart Conditions – Heart Valve Disorders
What are heart valves?
Your heart is a muscle that pumps blood through your body. It consists of four chambers: two atria (upper chambers) and two ventricles (lower chambers). Blood passes through a valve before leaving each chamber of the heart. These four valves prevent backward flow of the blood. They are actual flaps located on each end of the two ventricles. The valves act as one-way inlets of blood on one side of a ventricle and one-way outlets of blood on the other side of the ventricle.
The four heart valves are:
- Tricuspid valve – between the right atrium and right ventricle
- Pulmonary valve – between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery
- Mitral valve – between the left atrium and the left ventricle
- Aortic valve – between the left ventricle and the aorta
The tricuspid and pulmonary valves are on the right side of the heart, where blood comes back into the heart to be re-oxygenated.
The mitral and aortic valves are on the left side of the heart, where oxygenated blood is pumped out into the body.
What are heart valve disorders, or disease?
The heart’s valves can have one of two dysfunctions:
- Regurgitation – in which the valve is not closing properly, so blood flows backward instead of forward
- Stenosis – in which the valve opening is narrowed, inhibiting the ability of the heart to pump blood, due to the increased force necessary to pump blood through stiff valves
Some of the causes of heart valve damage include damage from heart attack or infection, changes due to aging or congenital birth defects, or a family history of rheumatic fever.
What are the causes of heart valve disease?
The most common causes are:
- Congenital heart disease
- Heart attack
- Enlargement of the heart (cardiomyopathy)
- Infection of the valve (endocarditis)
- Valve deterioration due to aging
- Rheumatic fever
What are the symptoms of heart valve disease?
The two most serious symptoms that require immediate attention are: chest pain and palpitations. If you feel either of these, call 911. Mercy’s Chest Pain ER is only minutes away.
Other symptoms include:
- Migraine headaches
- Fatigue
- Dizziness
- Low or high blood pressure
- Shortness of breath
- Abdominal pain
How is heart valve disease diagnosed?
Through any of these procedures:
- Electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG)
- Chest X-ray
- Cardiac Catheterization
- Transesophageal Echocardiogram
- Radionuclide Scans
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging
For more information on these procedures, click on Mercy test forms for these and other heart procedures.
What kind of treatment is available?
Medication or surgery may be recommended to treat heart valve disease. Beta blockers are medications that reduce symptoms by controlling heart rate and fibrillation. Blood pressure medications are also prescribed to decrease the force against which the heart must pump to reduce pressure in the lungs.
Surgery is used to repair or replace the damaged valves. In operations to repair damage, the surgery may improve or alleviate symptoms through trimming scarred valve flaps or inserting prosthetic rings. If replacement is appropriate (in cases where valves are severely malformed or destroyed), the damaged valve may be replaced with mechanical, animal or donated human valves.
Mercy’s Cardiac Rehabilitation program , offered at Mercy Health Plaza’s Fitness Center, is also available to help you recover.
For more information from the American Heart Association, click on www.americanheart.org.
For more information from the American Stroke Association, click on www.strokeassociation.org.
