Heart valve disease refers to any condition in which one or more of the four heart valves (aortic, mitral, pulmonary, and tricuspid) is damaged, diseased, or abnormally formed, impairing the flow of blood through the heart. The valves are one-way gates ensuring blood flows in the correct direction; when they malfunction, the heart must work harder and symptoms develop.
Valve disease takes two main forms. Stenosis occurs when the valve leaflets thicken, fuse, or calcify, narrowing the valve opening and restricting forward flow. Regurgitation (also called insufficiency or incompetence) occurs when the valve leaflets fail to close properly, allowing blood to leak backwards; the heart must pump a larger volume to compensate. Some valves develop both stenosis and regurgitation simultaneously.
Common valve conditions include aortic stenosis (the most common valve disease in adults over 65, often due to calcification), mitral regurgitation (often due to mitral valve prolapse or rheumatic heart disease), mitral stenosis (usually from rheumatic disease), and pulmonary or tricuspid valve disease in congenital heart conditions. Symptoms include breathlessness, fatigue, ankle swelling, palpitations, and in severe cases, syncope (blackouts) or cardiac arrest.
Diagnosis is confirmed by echocardiography. Management ranges from monitoring and medication to valve repair or replacement by open heart surgery or transcatheter approaches such as TAVI (for aortic stenosis) or MitraClip (for mitral regurgitation).
« Back to Glossary Index