You heart is equipped with four valves namely aortic, mitral, pulmonic and tricuspid valves and if any one or more than one of these valves malfunction, then the condition is termed as Valvular heart disease. The main job of these valves is to control the blood flow properly and in proper direction and the whole activity of blood circulation gets controlled through opening and closing of these valves in a precise manner. If the functions of opening and closing of these valves go haywire, then your heart s ability to pump blood will get affected leading to other complications. Out of these four valves, normally valvular heart disease get restricted only with malfunctioning of either the aortic or mitral valve.

Factors Influencing Valvular Heart Disease

The main reason for a person to get valvular heart disease could be due either acquired or congenital reason. A congenital condition is a condition where the baby will always be born with, and such congenital valvular heart disease will always affect the functioning of the mitral valve in the heart and the condition is known as mitral valve prolapse.

In this condition, due to the mitral valve s inability to close properly, some amount of blood will flow back into the heart chamber namely the left atrium and this mitral valve prolapse is seldom dangerous and is never treated.

Any acquired valvular heart disease is the heart condition that has been acquired at a later part of life and the main basic cause for the acquired valvular heart disease could be rheumatic fever. You may be aware that strep throat infection if left untreated can result in rheumatic fever which in turn cause damage or degradation to the connective tissues of your body including heart valves, joints, and skin.
After the advent of many broad spectrum antibiotics such as penicillin, rheumatic fever occurrence has steadily declined and that has seen the valvular heart disease a thing of past in all major developed countries and in few developing countries.

Prevalent Types of Valvular Heart Disease

When you consider to know about the various types of valvular heart disease, valvular stenosis is one type and in this condition there will be either blockage or constriction in valve opening in any one of the heart valves or more.

In earlier days when rheumatic fever was more prevalent, patients with rheumatic fever suffered from a severe aortic stenosis and this condition posed a very serious threat to pregnant women due to the various painful conditions associated with pregnancy and childbirth. Hence, doctors who diagnose women and find this condition in them, normally recommend surgical correction of the aortic valve well before they could get pregnant.

The second type of valvular regurgitation can occur if any of the valves fail to get closed properly and at proper time and this condition may lead to blood flowing in wrong direction. In case of milder valvular regurgitation there may not be any need for special treatment; but a severe case might require medications or surgery or both.

A yet another type of valvular heart disease namely Atresia is a more serious condition normally diagnosed in infants where the valve itself might have been malformed making the situation to be corrected only with surgical intervention.

[tags]Influencing Factors, Valvular Regurgitation[/tags]