The heart contracts about 100 thousand times a day to ensure that the cells, tissues and organs in the body are constantly fed. An average of 5 liters of blood in the circulatory system is constantly in circulation between all tissues and organs during the day. The contraction of the heart occurs unconsciously due to electrical activity.
How Does the Heart Work?
The electrical activity required for the contraction of the heart muscle is transmitted to all intracardiac surfaces from a region called the sinus node. The electrical activity generated by this node is regulated by a cluster of cells defined as the atrioventricular node. Thus, the heart contracts rhythmically.
The 2 chambers in the upper part of the heart, which consists of four chambers, are defined as the atrium, that is, the atria, while the 2 chambers in the lower part of the heart are called the ventricle. Between these chambers, there are a total of 4 valves: tricuspid, pulmonary, mitral and aortic.
Blood in the body's circulatory system enters the heart through the right atrium. It passes through the tricuspid valve (also called the valve) and is transferred to the right ventricle. With the contraction of the heart muscle, the blood passes through the pulmonary valve for purification and is sent to the lungs. Oxygen-enriched blood enters the left atrium. The blood that reaches the left ventricle by passing through the mitral valve is pumped to the aortic vein by passing through the aortic valve to be pumped to the whole body.
What is Heart Valve Disease?
The heart valves, which ensure the correct direction of blood flow between the heart chambers, open and close with the contraction of the heart. When these valves cannot perform their normal functions, different health problems may occur.
Heart valve diseases can develop congenital (congenital) or commonly known among the people as congenital or acquired, that is, due to subsequent health problems. The most common heart valve diseases, which can develop due to many different factors, develop due to mitral and aortic valves. Disorders related to tricuspid and pulmonary valves are less common.
Diseases related to the heart valves, due to the narrowing of the valves, the blood flow is reduced. It can be seen as a back flow of blood due to heart valve failure or heart valve failure. These disorders can occur singly or both. The load on the heart increases due to the disturbances in the heart valves. If left untreated, it can cause irreversible damage to the heart.
What are the Symptoms of Heart Valve Diseases?
Heart valve diseases usually do not cause symptoms in the initial period. Therefore, diagnosis and treatment are delayed. This can cause very serious health problems such as heart failure, arrhythmia, stroke and heart attack, and even sudden loss of life.
In the presence of heart valve diseases, which are mostly slow-progressing, the person should have regular health check-ups. Although the symptoms that occur in the later stages of heart valve disease differ depending on which valve the disease is in, they are generally;
- quick fatigue,
- fatigue,
- weakness,
- It causes symptoms such as
- sensation of congestion,
- shortness of breath,
- palpitations.
- dizziness,
- chest pain
- fainting are also present in the discomfort that can cause fluid accumulation in the body. commonly seen.
The expression heart valve diseases is a general term describing stenosis or insufficiency in the mitral, tricuspi, pulmonary and aortic valves.
What are Mitral Valve Diseases?
Blood from the lungs to the left atrium passes through the bivalve mitral valve to the left ventricle. After the left ventricle fills with blood, the heart contracts, allowing blood to be pumped through the aortic valve into the aorta. During the pumping of blood into the aorta, the aortic valve opens while the mitral valve closes.
The closure of the mitral valve prevents blood from flowing back into the left atrium. Depending on the diseases that occur in the mitral valve, the passage of blood from the left atrium to the left ventricle becomes difficult or blood flows back to the left ventricle.
Mitral valve diseases with insidious course do not cause symptoms in the early period. However, as the disease progresses,
- shortness of breath,
- chest pain,
- fatigue,
- may cause symptoms such as palpitations.
Mitral Valve Stenosis: The mitral valve, which is approximately 4 to 6 square centimeters in size, is moderate in size from 1 to 1.5 square centimeters, A regression below 1 square centimeter is defined as severe mitral stenosis.
- Hardness of the valve, or the tissue at the bottom of the valve, causes blood to pool in the lungs.
- Blood pools in the lungs and intrapulmonary pressure increases. This causes the gas exchange in the lungs to be disrupted.
- In cases of severe mitral valve stenosis, the pressure in the left atrium also increases. Accordingly, the left atrium enlarges, thus prolonging the conduction time of the electrical activity of the heart.
- When this condition, which causes arrhythmia, continues, it causes an increase in pressure and loss of function in the other chambers of the heart.
- Over time, the removal of clot fragments called embolism from clot formations in the heart chambers to different parts of the body causes the development of more serious health problems. Some of the blood that needs to be pumped through the body escapes back to the left atrium. In addition, due to enlargement of the left ventricle, the mitral valve may not close completely. Over time, the load on the left ventricle increases and this causes heart failure.
What are Aortic Valve Diseases?
The aortic valve, which consists of three leaflets, is in the shape of a half moon. The aortic valve opens with the contraction of the heart, allowing oxygen-rich blood to be pumped to the whole body through the aorta. Aortic valve diseases are as follows;
- Due to rheumatism, the aortic valve thickens.
- Due to inflammation, the leaves of the cap stick together and harden.
- This may also prevent the mitral valve from performing its normal function.
- On the other hand, in cases of congenital aortic stenosis, the aortic valve consists of 2 leaves, not 3.
- Time i� Aortic stenosis may develop in the person due to the deterioration of the valve.
- Another factor that causes aortic stenosis is arteriosclerosis.
- It often causes symptoms such as blackout, fainting, chest pain and arrhythmia.
Aortic Insufficiency: Aortic insufficiency, which often develops due to infective endocarditis (heart valve infection) or joint rheumatism, can also occur as a result of tearing one of the leaves of the aortic valve due to hard blows to the thorax.
In aortic insufficiency that causes the heart to enlarge, symptoms such as- malaise,
- chest pain,
- shortness of breath
- fainting are observed.
What are Tricuspid Valve Diseases?
The tricuspid valve, located between the right atrium and the right ventricle, prevents blood from returning from the right atrium to the right ventricle. Tricuspid valve diseases consisting of 3 leaflets are as follows:
Tricuspid Stenosis: This disease, which is much rarer than other valve stenosis, is mostly caused by rheumatic heart disease.
This condition, which causes the blood to pool behind the right atrium, causes enlargement of the vein, edema in the legs, fluid accumulation in the abdomen and enlargement of the liver. In tricuspid stenosis, which is characterized by the complaint of fatigue, the person feels pain in the lower part of the right ribs due to the enlargement of the liver.
Pulmonary stenosis may occur due to some congenital heart diseases, left heart failure, mitral stenosis and mitral insufficiency.What are Pulmonary Valve Diseases?
Right ventricle The pulmonary valve, located between the pulmonary artery and the pulmonary artery, the vessel through which blood is sent to the lungs for purification from the heart, prevents blood from flowing back into the right ventricle from the pulmonary artery. Pulmonary valve consists of 3 leaflets.
Pulmonary Valve Stenosis: Pulmonary valve stenosis is most commonly seen congenitally. In very rare cases, Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) and rheumatic heart disease can also lead to pulmonary valve stenosis. Tiredness and it causes symptoms such as shortness of breath that develops with effort.- Fatigue,
- edema in the feet,
- liver enlargement,
- swelling in the veins in the neck area can be seen.
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