Admin What is the most common valve abnormality?
The most commonly affected valve with a congenital defect is a bicuspid aortic valve, which has only two leaflets rather than three. Other types of heart disease: Heart failure. Heart failure happens when the heart cannot pump enough blood and oxygen to support other organs in your body.
What endocarditis mean?
Endocarditis is a life-threatening inflammation of the inner lining of your heart’s chambers and valves (endocardium). Endocarditis is usually caused by an infection.
What is valve disease?
In heart valve disease, one or more of the valves in your heart doesn’t work properly. Your heart has four valves that keep blood flowing in the correct direction. In some cases, one or more of the valves don’t open or close properly. This can cause the blood flow through your heart to your body to be disrupted.
What causes thickening of the heart valves?
The area through which blood moves out of the heart to the aorta is narrowed (stenosis). When the aortic valve opening is narrowed, your heart must work harder to pump enough blood into the aorta and to the rest of your body. The extra work of the heart can cause the left ventricle to thicken and enlarge.
What are the two categories of heart valve disorders?
Stenosis is when the valve opening becomes narrow and restricts blood flow. Prolapse is when a valve slips out of place or the valve flaps (leaflets) do not close properly. Regurgitation is when blood leaks backward through a valve, sometimes due to prolapse.
What is the most common type of endocarditis?
Not all types of bacteria can cause this kind of infection, but many types can. Two kinds of bacteria cause most cases of bacterial endocarditis. These are staphylococci (staph) and streptococci (strep). You may be at increased risk for bacterial endocarditis if you have certain heart valve defects.
What is aortic valve sclerosis?
Aortic valve sclerosis is defined as calcification and thickening of a trileaflet aortic valve in the absence of obstruction of ventricular outflow. Its frequency increases with age, making it a major geriatric problem. Of adults aged > 65 years, 21-29% exhibit aortic valve sclerosis.
How serious is thickening of the heart?
The thickened heart muscle can eventually become too stiff to effectively fill the heart with blood. As a result, your heart can’t pump enough blood to meet your body’s needs. Sudden cardiac death. Rarely, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy can cause heart-related sudden death in people of all ages.
How do you treat thickening of the heart?
Alcohol septal ablation (nonsurgical procedure) – In this procedure, ethanol (a type of alcohol) is injected through a tube into the small artery that supplies blood to the area of heart muscle thickened by HCM. The alcohol causes these cells to die. The thickened tissue shrinks to a more normal size.