Overview
Tricuspid valve regurgitation is when the “door” connecting the upper and lower chambers on the right side of your heart doesn’t properly close. This leaky door allows some blood to flow backward each time your heart beats. Tricuspid valve regurgitation is a form of heart valve disease. It can range from trivial (no effects on your body) to severe. Over time, moderate to severe backward blood flow through any of your heart valves can make your heart work harder and take a toll on your cardiovascular system.
Other names for this condition include:
- Tricuspid regurgitation.
- Tricuspid insufficiency.
- Leaky tricuspid valve.
What happens during tricuspid valve regurgitation?
To understand this condition, it helps to know a bit about how your tricuspid valve works.
Your tricuspid valve manages blood flow from your right atrium down into your right ventricle (which pushes the blood into your main pulmonary artery). It’s made of a tough, fibrous ring (annulus) that supports three leaflets, or flaps. These leaflets open when your heart relaxes (diastole) to let blood flow from your right atrium into your right ventricle. They close when your heart contracts (systole) to prevent blood from flowing the wrong way, back into your right atrium.
When you have tricuspid valve regurgitation, your leaflets don’t fully seal when your heart contracts. As a result, some of the blood that should get pushed into your pulmonary artery leaks backward into your right atrium. Greater amounts of backward flow lead to more severe valve disease.
Trace, or trivial, tricuspid valve regurgitation (a very small amount of backward flow) is common and harmless, and you won’t feel any symptoms. Mild tricuspid valve regurgitation also causes no symptoms and should have little or no impact on your life. However, your healthcare provider will monitor your condition and may recommend lifestyle changes.
Moderate to severe tricuspid regurgitation is more serious. It may cause symptoms and require treatments ranging from medications to surgery.
Types of tricuspid regurgitation
There are three types of tricuspid regurgitation:
- Primary (organic). This means your tricuspid valve has one or more abnormalities. You may be born with these valve abnormalities (as in Ebstein’s anomaly), or infections or other factors may damage your valve later in life.
- Secondary (functional). With this type, your valve is structurally normal but an underlying medical condition (including various forms of heart disease) causes your valve to malfunction.
- Isolated. This is similar to the secondary type, but it’s when atrial fibrillation is the specific cause of right atrial enlargement. It can also happen due to prior heart surgery or transvenous pacemaker or defibrillator leads. There’s no evidence of additional factors like pulmonary hypertension or left-sided heart disease.
How common is tricuspid valve regurgitation?
Moderate to severe tricuspid regurgitation affects between 5 in 1,000 and 8 in 1,000 people in the U.S.
Many more people have trace (also called trivial) tricuspid valve regurgitation. This means the structure of their valve is usually normal, but a very small amount of blood leaks backward with each heartbeat. Trace regurgitation doesn’t cause any symptoms or lead to complications. But it’s a common finding in advanced imaging tests.
Symptoms
When to see a doctor
Complications
- High blood pressure.
- Diabetes.
- Heart failure.
- Some types of heart valve disease.
Prevention
- Control high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.
- Don't smoke or use tobacco.
- Eat a diet that's low in salt and saturated fat.
- Exercise at least 30 minutes a day on most days of the week unless your health care team says not to.
- Get good sleep. Adults should aim for 7 to 9 hours daily.
- Maintain a healthy weight.
- Reduce and manage stress.
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