Your heart is one of the organs in your body that relentlessly keeps you moving, and its valves assist in maintaining blood flow in the proper direction. These aortic valves play a most significant role, as they will pump oxygen-rich blood from your heart and delivers it to the rest of your body. Have you ever imagined what would happen if those valves don’t work the way they should?
Simply, the aortic valve problems can sneak up on you at any time, and when overlooked, they will worsen over time. Thus, often healthcare professionals say that recognizing the warning signs in the early stages is a real lifesaver. Further, this blog will give you detailed information on the aortic valve, what goes wrong with it, and what the symptoms are that you should not ignore.
What is aortic valve disease?
As we all know, the aortic valve sits between the left aorta and ventricle. Typically this large artery carries blood from the heart to many tissues and organs in your body. It has three more flaps that help to open and close to stop blood from flowing into the aorta.
Usually, an aortic valve assists in moving blood in one direction only, from the heart to aorta. When you are affected by aortic valve disease, of course, the valves will not function correctly. In most cases, it might be caused by the following issues:
- Aortic stenosis: In this condition, the heart valves become narrowed. At this point, an individual’s heart will work super hard to pump blood through the smaller openings. This may result in heart failure, irregular heart rhythm, and other heart-related issues.
- Aortic insufficiency: This condition occurs when your valve fails to close completely. This will make your blood regurgitate, or leak back into the heart. To compensate for this, the heart should work even harder to pump out a sufficient amount of blood to the body. Whenever your heart fails to supply sufficient blood to the body, heart failure will occur.
Rarely, both stenosis and regurgitation affect the valve at the same time, when you should consider reaching out to the best cardiothoracic surgeon in Coimbatore to get the desired outcomes.
What causes aortic valve problems?
Most of the aortic heart valve problems are congenital, also they can be develop in later periods of life.
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Congenital aortic valve problems:
Over 1 to 2% of babies are born with a BAV (bicuspid aortic valve). Every baby will have three cusps, but babies born with issues like bicuspid valves will have only two cusps. Some people will experience aortic stenosis due to the insufficient opening of the BAV. On the other hand, at times these BAV fails to close completely, resulting in aortic insufficiency. Until reaching adulthood, these BAV won’t exhibit any symptoms.
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Acquired aortic valve problems:
There are numerous causes for the acquired aortic valve problems, including:
- Aging: After some periods of life, calcium will start to deposit in the valve leaflets, so easily aortic insufficiency or stenosis can be caused. But aortic valve problems are more common among elderly people.
- Aortic dissection: The aortic valve function will be disturbed when there are tears in the inner aortic walls.
- Trauma: The aortic valve can get damaged when chest trauma occurs.
- Diseases and infections: Several diseases and infections will result in aortic valve problems, including rheumatic fever, endocarditis, syphilis, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and hypertension.
What are the warning signs of aortic valve problems?
Typically, in the early stages, these aortic valve problems may remain silent, but when the condition begins to progress, your heart should work harder, and slowly you will start experiencing the symptoms. Further, let’s see common symptoms of aortic issues:
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Shortness of breath:
Whenever you feel like you are having difficulty breathing, notably when engaging in physical activity or when lying down, this remains an early warning sign. The fluid can build up in the lungs to its inability to pump sufficient blood.
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Chest pain or tightness:
Usually, aortic valve stenosis or limited blood flow to the coronary arteries will result in chest pain, pressure, or tightness, notably when you are stressed or active.
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Fatigue or weakness:
In case even a small task feels like a marathon for you, this is the main signal from your heart to you that it is finding it hard to circulate sufficient blood to your muscles and brain.
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Dizziness or fainting:
Improper blood flow to the brain may result in lightheadedness or sudden fainting. This is one of the major indications by your heart that it unable to function properly and requires immediate treatment.
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Heart palpitations:
Individuals with aortic valve problems feel like their heart is fluttering, skipping a beat, or pounding harder than normal. These palpitations can be due to arrhythmias triggered by the stressed heart.
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Inflamed ankles or feet:
When the condition is getting severe, your heart finds it hard to keep up with circulation, resulting in fluid buildup, notably in the lower extremities.
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Heart murmur:
You cannot find it by yourself, your healthcare provider might detect an abnormal whooshing or swishing sound through the stethoscope. This unusual activity indicates a turbulent blood flow through a narrowed or leaking valve.
What actually triggers aortic valve problems?
Further, let’s have a close look at those common triggers of aortic valve problems:
- Age: When becoming old calcium will get deposited in the aortic valve, which triggers the aortic valve to become stiff and narrow.
- Congenital heart defects: A few individuals are born with issues in the aortic valve, like a missing, fused, or extra valve flap, so this will easily trigger the aortic valve regurgitation risks.
- Rheumatic fever: The issues like strep throat will trigger aortic stenosis, which is a type of heart valve disease. In case you developed heart valve problems, due to rheumatic fever, it is known as rheumatic heart disease.
- Endocarditis: Typically, infections will cause this kind of life-threatening condition, it can even damage the aortic valve.
- History of radiation to the chest: Typically, to treat cancer, doctors will recommend radiation therapy. Signs of heart valve disease may not be noticed until several years after getting radiation therapy.
- Other health issues: Persistent kidney disease, connective tissue disease, and lupus and Marfan syndrome will increase the risk of aortic stenosis or regurgitation.
Even aortic valve problems can cause:
- Stroke
- Blood clots
- Heart failure
- Arrhythmias
- Sudden deaths due to cardiac arrest
Simply, with the timely diagnosis and aortic valve disease treatment in Coimbatore, patients can effectively deal with aortic valve problems.
How to diagnose aortic valve problems?
During the diagnosis your healthcare providers will check about your medical history, performs some physical exam, and do some diagnostic tests.
Doctors will start by enquiring about your symptoms. During the physical examination, your healthcare provider will check your blood pressure and pulse, and listen to your heartbeat through a stethoscope to hear for the murmuring or clicking sounds.
Further, for the prompt diagnosis your healthcare provider will run more diagnostic tests. Most of the time healthcare providers will recommend an echocardiogram to diagnose aortic valve disease. During the process, while delivering a picture of the heart an sound waves will be used. Other imaging tests employed in diagnosing aortic valve problems include magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), chest X-rays, and computed tomography (CT) scan.
Simply, electrocardiogram is also known as ECG, or EKG, this test measures your heart’s electrical activity, but it’s not a perfect method to diagnose aortic valve disease, but it assists the healthcare providers in evaluating how well the heart works.
At times, diagnosis requires cardiac catheterization. During the procedure, doctors will insert a catheter into your artery and vein. Doctors will take these catheters into your heart through blood vessels. Those small devices inserted through the catheter are used to measure the pressure in the heart’s chamber and the blood flow. Further, during this procedure X-rays of the heart may also be taken.
What are the ways to treat aortic valve problems?
While mild aortic valve problems will cause only less or no symptoms. In these cases, treatment is not mandatory, but frequent screenings are crucial because your healthcare provider should monitor your condition to find if there is any progression, through this, the issues can be caught and treated easily.
Like all conditions, you can take medications to treat aortic valve problems, these medications may help you in controlling blood pressure, reducing the accumulation of fluid in the body caused by heart failure, and enhancing blood flow.
Further, individuals with moderate to severe aortic valve problems should avoid engaging in strenuous physical activity and vigorous exercise.
Limiting engagement in vigorous activities and taking proper medications can assist in controlling symptoms, as they will disturb your aortic valve problems.
The common techniques employed to repair or replace aortic valve problems include:
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Surgery:
For several decades, to treat aortic valve problems, open-heart surgery has been performed. It is one of the well-established methods, and it is also one of the safest methods. At times, doctors will do Ross method, in which the defective aortic valve will be replaced with their pulmonary valve. People who face issues with bicuspid aortic valve will have an enlarged aortic valve. So, aortic valve repair or replacement becomes mandatory using a procedure known as valve-sparing aortic root surgery. This procedure aims to replace or repair specific parts of the aorta, but does not replace the aortic valve.
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Balloon valvuloplasty:
In this repairing procedure, healthcare providers will insert a catheter with a balloon at its tip into a blood vessel, further maneuver it to your heart, and the aortic valve. Inside the valve, the doctors will try to inflate the balloon, which will expand the leaflets and tissues, so they can easily treat narrowed valves. Further, by deflating the balloon, doctors will remove it.
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Transcatheter aortic valve replacement:
Healthcare providers will perform this minimally invasive procedure to stretch out the old valve. Healthcare providers will thread an artificial valve into the heart using a catheter. A new valve will be inserted inside the place of an old aortic valve to do the activities that the old one does.
Those artificial valves can be donated either from humans or animals, or at times, they can be made of durable materials like carbon or titanium. Notably, patients who underwent artificial valve treatment need to take a blood thinner for couple of months or longer to avoid blood clots.
Final thoughts:
In conclusion, we can say that individuals with mild aortic valve problems will not experience any symptoms, but it is recommended to go for frequent screenings to monitor the progression of the condition. This helps you and your healthcare provider detect the onset of signs and start the treatment before the complications get worse. Simply, if you are diagnosed with issues in an aortic valve, don’t panic, there are effective treatments to give you the desired outcomes.
