Heart Valve Disease

Heart valve disease refers to any of several conditions that prevent one or more of the valves in your heart from working right. Left untreated, heart valve disease may reduce blood flow and cause your heart to work harder. Untreated heart valve disease can become life-threatening.

But there’s hope. In many cases, your healthcare provider can do surgery or a minimally invasive procedure to repair or replace your heart valves. This restores normal function and allows you to return to normal activities.

The four valves in your heart make sure blood flows in only one direction through your heart. Your valves consist of small flaps of tissue (called leaflets) that open to allow blood to move forward through your heart during half of your heartbeat. These leaflets close to prevent blood from flowing backward during the other half of your heartbeat.

Your heart’s valves are:

• Mitral (between your left atrium and left ventricle)
• Tricuspid (between your right atrium and right ventricle)
• Aortic (between your left ventricle and aorta)
• Pulmonary (between your right ventricle and pulmonary artery)

Types of heart valve disease

There are different types of heart valve disease: stenosis, regurgitation, prolapse and atresia. They can affect more than one valve.

Stenosis

Tissues forming the valve leaflets become stiffer, narrowing your valve opening and reducing the amount of blood that can flow through it. Mild narrowing may not reduce the overall functioning of your heart. But the valve can become so narrow (stenotic) that it reduces your heart’s function, makes your heart pump harder and puts it under strain. As a result, the rest of your body may not get enough blood flow.

Regurgitation

Also known as insufficiency or “leaky valve,” this happens when your leaflets don’t close completely. This lets blood leak backward across your valve. Your heart has to pump harder to make up for this backward flow, and the rest of your body may get less blood flow.

Prolapse

Your mitral valve may not close tightly because the leaflets are extra stretchy. They go back into your left atrium when your heart beats. This is usually harmless, but can lead to regurgitation in some people.

Atresia

Valvular atresia happens when a heart valve forms without an opening before birth. Healthcare providers usually diagnose this very early in infancy.

How common is heart valve disease?

About 2.5% of Americans — many of them older adults — have heart valve disease. Each year, roughly 27,000 people die from heart valve disease in the United States. Mitral valve prolapse is a common heart valve problem.