If you have a heart murmur or develop other signs or symptoms of mitral valve disease, your health care provider might recommend that you visit a doctor that specializes in heart diseases cardiologist. A typical heart has two upper and two lower chambers. The upper chambers — the right and left atria — receive incoming blood.
The lower chambers — the right and left ventricles — pump blood out of your heart. The heart valves, which keep blood flowing in the right direction, are gates at the chamber openings for the tricuspid and mitral valves and exits for the pulmonary and aortic valves.
The mitral valve is one of four valves in the heart that keep blood flowing in the right direction. Each valve has flaps leaflets that open and close once during each heartbeat.
If a valve doesn't open or close properly, blood flow through the heart to the body can be reduced. In mitral valve regurgitation, the flaps don't close tightly. Blood flows backward when the valve is closed, making it harder for the heart to work properly. In mitral valve stenosis, the valve opening narrows. The heart now must work harder to force blood through the smaller valve opening. If the opening in the valve becomes small enough, it can reduce blood flow from the left atrium to the left ventricle.
Mitral valve disease has many causes. Some forms of mitral valve disease can be present at birth congenital heart defect. Mitral valve disease may also develop later in life acquired. The symptoms of MVS often develop gradually. They may appear or worsen when the body is dealing with extra stress, such as infections or pregnancy. If a doctor suspects that a person has a mitral valve disease, they will listen to their heart with a stethoscope.
During this process, they listen for heart murmurs, clicking sounds, palpitations, unusual sounds, or strange rhythms. The doctor may also order an additional test to confirm their diagnosis and assess the severity of the condition.
They may order one of the following:. Treatment for mitral valve disease may not be necessary if the condition is not too severe. If this is the case, a doctor may suggest that a person makes lifestyle changes such as:. However, if someone requires treatment, the doctor may decide on one of a number of options. These include the following treatments. Drugs cannot cure mitral heart disease. However, they can treat the symptoms or prevent it from worsening.
Another option for mitral valve disease is surgery. This is often the option that a doctor will choose if the condition is more severe. During mitral valve surgery, a surgeon may repair the valve to allow it to function correctly. However, if the valve is in a particularly bad state, they may replace it with a biological or mechanical valve.
This is a non-surgical procedure that a doctor may choose to treat the narrowing of the mitral valve. During this procedure, a healthcare professional inserts a long, thin tube called a catheter into blood vessels in the groin.
At the end of the catheter, there is a deflated balloon. The healthcare professional then guides the catheter into the chambers of the heart. The healthcare professional positions the balloon directly inside the narrowed valve before inflating it and deflating it several times to widen the opening of the valve. It keeps blood moving in the right direction and prevents it from flowing backward into the left atrium.
Mitral valve disease occurs when the mitral valve does not work correctly. This can restrict blood flow through the heart and may cause blood to flow backward into the left atrium. A person with mitral valve disease may experience no symptoms. However, some common symptoms of mitral valve disease include shortness of breath, chest pain, and heart palpitations. A person may not require treatment. However, a doctor may treat more severe cases with medication.
They may treat even more severe cases with surgery or valvuloplasty. When the left ventricle contracts, the right ventricle also contracts.
This causes the pulmonary valve to open and the tricuspid valve to close. Blood flows out from the right ventricle to the lungs before it is returned to the left atrium as fresh, oxygenated blood. Regurgitation is a leaky valve. This means the valve doesn't fully close and the blood flows backward through the valve. This results in leakage of blood back into the atria from the ventricles in the case of the mitral and tricuspid valves.
Or it leaks back into the ventricles in the case of the aortic and pulmonary valves. This can cause the chambers to be overworked because they have repump the extra blood that was returned. Over time, this can cause structural and functional changes in the heart chambers. These changes prevent the chambers from pumping blood normally. Stenosis is a narrowed valve. With stenosis, the valve opening is narrowed and the valve doesn't open correctly.
This makes it harder for the heart to pump blood across the narrowed valve. The heart must use more force to pump blood through the stiff stenotic valve or valves.
This can also cause structural and functional changes to the different chambers of the heart. The mitral valve is located between the upper left heart chamber left atrium and the lower left heart chamber left ventricle. A healthy mitral valve keeps your blood moving in the right direction. A leaky valve doesn't close the way it should, allowing some blood to flow backward into the left atrium.
If left untreated, a leaky valve could lead to heart failure. Treatment of mitral valve regurgitation depends on how severe your condition is, whether it's getting worse and whether you have symptoms. For mild leakage, treatment is usually not necessary. You may need heart surgery to repair or replace the valve for severe leakage or regurgitation. Left untreated, severe mitral valve regurgitation can cause heart failure or heart rhythm problems arrhythmias.
Even people without symptoms may need to be evaluated by a cardiologist and surgeon trained in mitral valve disease to determine whether early intervention may be beneficial. Some people with mitral valve disease might not experience symptoms for many years. Signs and symptoms of mitral valve regurgitation, which depend on its severity and how quickly the condition develops, can include:.
Mitral valve regurgitation is often mild and progresses slowly. You may have no symptoms for many years and be unaware that you have this condition, and it might not progress. Your doctor might first suspect you have mitral valve regurgitation upon detecting a heart murmur.
Sometimes, however, the problem develops quickly, and you may experience a sudden onset of severe signs and symptoms. If your doctor hears a heart murmur when listening to your heart with a stethoscope, he or she may recommend that you visit a cardiologist and get an echocardiogram. If you develop symptoms that suggest mitral valve regurgitation or another problem with your heart, see your doctor right away.
Sometimes the first indications are actually those of mitral valve regurgitation's complications, including heart failure, a condition in which your heart can't pump enough blood to meet your body's needs.
A typical heart has two upper and two lower chambers. The upper chambers — the right and left atria — receive incoming blood. The lower chambers — the right and left ventricles — pump blood out of your heart. The heart valves, which keep blood flowing in the right direction, are gates at the chamber openings for the tricuspid and mitral valves and exits for the pulmonary and aortic valves.
0コメント