Heart Valve Disease
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Your heart valves lie at the exit of each of your four heart chambers and maintain one-way blood flow through your heart. The four heart valves make sure that blood always flows freely in a forward direction and that there is no backward leakage.
- What Is Heart Valve Disease?
- What Causes Heart Valve Disease?
- Who Is At Risk for Heart Valve Disease?
- How Is Heart Valve Disease Diagnosed?
- How Is Heart Valve Disease Treated?
- How Can Heart Valve Disease Be Prevented?
- Key Points Heart valve disease
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Who Is At Risk for Heart Valve Disease?
Populations Affected
Older people are more likely to develop heart valve disease. It's estimated that 1 in 8 people age 75 or older have at least moderate heart valve disease.
People who have a history of endocarditis, rheumatic fever, heart attack, or heart failure—or previous heart valve disease—are more likely to develop heart valve disease.
About 1 to 2 percent of people are born with an aortic valve that has two flaps instead of three. Sometimes an aortic valve may have three flaps, but two flaps are fused together and act as one flap.
This is called a bicuspid or bicommissural aortic valve. People who have this congenital condition are more likely to develop aortic heart valve disease.
Major Risk Factors
The major risk factors for acquired heart valve disease are:
- Age, Heart disease risk factors, such as unhealthy blood cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, smoking, insulin resistance, diabetes, overweight or obesity, lack of physical activity, and a family history of early heart disease
- Risk factors for endocarditis, such as intravenous drug use
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What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Heart Valve Disease?
Major Signs and Symptoms
The main sign of heart valve disease is an unusual heart sound called a heart murmur. Your doctor can hear a heart murmur with a stethoscope.
However, many people have heart murmurs without having heart valve disease or any other heart problems. Others may have heart murmurs due to heart valve disease, but have no other signs or symptoms.
Heart valve disease often worsens over time, so signs and symptoms may develop years after a heart murmur is first heard. Many people who have heart valve disease don't have any symptoms until they're middle-aged or older.
Other common signs and symptoms of heart valve disease relate to heart failure, which heart valve disease can eventually cause. These symptoms include:
- • Unusual fatigue (tiredness)
- • Shortness of breath, especially when you exert yourself or when you're lying down
- • Swelling of your ankles, feet, or sometimes the abdomen
Other Signs and Symptoms
Heart valve disease can cause chest pain that may only happen when you exert yourself. You also may notice a fluttering, racing, or irregular heartbeat. Some types of heart valve disease, such as aortic or mitral valve stenosis, can cause dizziness or fainting.