Valvular Heart Disease
By: Robert NamTotal Views: 42, Word Count: 703,
Valvular heart disease is caused by damage to or a defect in one of the four valves of the heart, i.e. the aortic, mitral, pulmonary or tricuspid. The tricuspid and mitral valves control the blood flow between the ventricles and the atria (the lower and upper chambers of the heart.
The pulmonary valve controls the blood flow from the heart to the lungs and the aortic valve governs the blood flow between the aorta and the heart and thereby the blood vessels to the rest of the body. The aortic and mitral valves are the ones most often affected by valvular heart disease.
While there are several causes of this type of heart disease that includes congenital heart disease, rheumatic fever, cardiac dilation and age related calcification of the valves, irrespective of the cause, heart valve problems are usually manifested in one of two ways. The valve openings either become too narrow or give a difficult time to the blood to cross the valves or the valves become ineffective allowing blood to leak across the valves when they're meant to be closed.
Valves that Leak
Due to the leakage of the valves, the heart pumps the same blood twice which means that a part of the work of the heart simply isn't good as the blood comes right back into the chamber. The heart can compensate this additional work in several ways. The first propensity is for the chambers to enlarge, since there's more blood to pump.
This is generally quite efficient if the leakage is moderate or mild and the individual might not even realize if there's any problem at all. In more serious cases, the heart muscle might begin to wear down. This might then lead to congestive heart failure that's characterized by swelling of ankles, shortness of breath and other symptoms. The broadened chambers might also lead to problems with arrhythmias.
Symptoms
The symptoms for this disease can occur suddenly depending upon how rapidly the disease develops. If the disease advances gradually, then your heart might adjust and you might not notice the beginning of any symptoms easily. Moreover, the severity of the symptoms doesn't necessarily associate with the severity of the valve disease. This means you've no symptoms at all but have severe valve disease. On the other hand severe symptoms can occur from even a small valve leak.
Several of the symptoms are similar to those related with congestive heart failure such as wheezing and shortness of breath after some physical exertion and swelling of ankles, feet, hands or abdomen. Other symptoms include chest pain, palpitations, fatigue, fever, dizziness or fainting and rapid weight gain.
Causes
There are several different types of valve disease; some can be present at birth while others might be acquired later in life.
- Rheumatic fever might cause valvular heart disease
- Atherosclerosis and high blood pressure might damage the aortic valve
- Heart valve tissue might degenerate with age
- Bacterial endocarditis, an infection of the inner lining of the heart valves and heart muscles cause valvular heart disease.
- Heart attack might also damage the muscles that control the heart valves
- Other disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, carcinoid tumors, systemic lupus erythematosus or syphilis might damage one or more heart valves.
- Some diet drugs and methysergide, a medication used for treating migrane headaches might promote valvular heart disease.
- Radiation therapy used for treating cancer might also be related with this disease.
Valvular heart disease can be prevented by leading a heart healthy lifestyle such as staying away from smoking, consuming no more than two alcoholiv beverages a day and adhering to prescribed treatment program for other forms of heart disease, if any.
About the Author
Dr. Robert Nam is a well known heart specialist and has done postgraduate training in cardiology at the national heart hospital, the London chest hospital and UCL hospital, London. He was also engaged in research at the national heart and lung institute. Nowadays he is working as a consultant cardiologist at UCL hospital, London.
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