What is open-heart valve disease?

The human heart valve is practically no different from the check valve in the pump system, which circulates blood in one direction, blood flows from the veins to the heart and out to the artery but cannot flow in the opposite direction . Without the heart valve, the heart will not be able to push blood to feed the body because then the blood will circulate in two directions and when the heart valve is open, blood circulation becomes more difficult.

In order to know whether or not a heart valve is dangerous, you need to first understand it and the heart.

According to Mayoclinic, the heart has 4 valves that keep blood flowing in the right direction. These valves include:

1. 2-leaf valve
2. 3-leaf valve
3. Aortic valve
4. Lung artery valve

These valves have a 'lid' that will open so blood flows through the heart chambers and closes to keep the blood from flowing back again. Each valve usually has 3 caps, except the 2-leaf valve has 2 caps.

A valve opening is when the "cap" of the valve does not close after blood has passed, causing the rebound blood to cause stagnation on one side and deficiency on the other.

Opening your heart valve will make blood circulation more difficult.

In the early stages, the heart's chambers tend to dilate to expel blood more often, this compensation mechanism makes the patients with mild valve openings appear asymptomatic. But a severe open-heart valve may result in decreased blood flow. This can cause symptoms of congestive heart failure with symptoms such as:

1. Trouble breathing, especially when exertion or when lying up straight
2. Legs swell or hold water elsewhere in the body

Symptoms of heart valve openings

As the disease progresses in advanced stages, the person begins to show symptoms:

1. Dyspnea : The most common symptom is that the patient feels more difficult to breathe, especially for patients with pulmonary valve regurgitation, mitral valve leaflets. When the person lies down, this sign will increase markedly.
2. Fatigue: Because the circulating heart does not carry blood to feed the body, people with heart valves often feel tired. If they work too hard, they may faint.
3. Tachycardia : Many people mistakenly think that a rapid heartbeat is a sign of uncontrolled tachycardia or arrhythmia, but this fact can also be a symptom of early-stage mitral valve disease.

In addition, patients also have some other symptoms such as dizziness, dizziness, swelling of the legs or ankles, coughing much at night .

Some characteristics of each valve type are exposed:

1. Mitral valve stenosis: Patients often have difficulty breathing, become more tired and persistent dry cough due to blood stasis in the lungs.
2. Tricuspid valve openings: Mostly do not cause symptoms, when severe open can see floating neck veins, edema especially in the limbs caused by blood stasis in the veins
3. Aortic valve opening: When the valve is exposed, even if it is mild, the patient still experiences fatigue and severe chest pain, chest tightness, and fainting.
4. Pulmonary valve openings: There is almost no apparent sign until the valve is severely open with pulmonary hypertension or other valves.

Dangerous heart valve opening no longer depends on many factors such as the degree of openness, type of open valve, comorbidities, . (Artwork)

To assess the degree of valve leak, people are classified into 4 levels from 1/4 to 4/4, if the degree of openness of 2/4 or more is dangerous, and the valve openings of 1/4 are not significant. . Particularly for aortic valve opening 1/4 is more dangerous because this heart valve controls blood circulation from the heart to feed the whole body.

Thus, to assess whether the risk of heart valve openings is no longer dependent on many factors such as the type of open valve, the degree of openness, heart chamber size, whether or not heart arrhythmia appears, other comorbid diseases such as hypertension, diabetes .

How to treat open valve heart disease

Open-heart valve disease is a dangerous disease, causing great impacts on health . Therefore, if not detected early for timely treatment, it can have serious consequences, even threatening the lives of patients.

About the treatment of open-heart valve disease, depending on the stage of early or late detection of disease, the treatment method will be different:

1. If the disease is in a mild stage, surgery is not required, the doctor will guide the patient to adjust the diet and activities to live peacefully with the disease.
2. When the heart valve is seriously damaged with symptoms such as difficulty breathing, chest tightness, fatigue . there is a risk of heart failure, the specialist will appoint surgery to prevent the disease progression.
3. Need valve replacement surgery when the heart valve is too damaged:

Heart valve repair surgery: With open valves, the doctor will rely on the mechanism causing the opening to have different interventions such as cutting, stitching . to help the valves close together.

Heart valve replacement surgery : When the damage to the heart valve is too severe, the heart valve repair surgery is no longer effective, it is necessary to remove the heart valve and replace it with an artificial heart valve. The valve used for replacement may be a mechanical valve or a biological valve depending on the doctor's prescription.

How to prevent a heart valve leak

People who have had a heart valve should pay attention to daily exercise such as walking. If you want to participate, you should consult your doctor.

1. Avoiding smoking and maintaining a healthy weight is also important for people with heart valves as well as for healthy people. Overweight and obesity are also a burden for the heart when contracting. Exercise every day, doing a moderate activity with a scientific diet.
2. Eat a light (low salt): Reduces water retention of the body, avoid hypertension and overworked heart.
3. Do not drink coffee: Coffee, alcohol will increase the arrhythmia in people with open heart valve disease so you should stay away from drinks that affect cardiovascular health.