What are the effects of valvular heart disease?

Heart disease is one of the serious diseases that has become increasingly prevalent in recent years. As people's life pressures increase in modern life, many people's bodies bear excessive pressure, which in turn leads to excessive burden on the heart and induces the risk of heart disease. There are many types of heart diseases, among which valvular heart disease is one of the most influential. Let’s take a look at the impacts that valvular heart disease can bring.

Valvular heart disease is a common heart disease in my country, among which valve damage caused by rheumatic fever is the most common. As the population ages, senile valvular disease and valvular lesions caused by coronary heart disease and myocardial infarction are becoming more and more common.

Manifestations: Valvular heart disease usually presents a chronic development process. There may be no clinical symptoms in the early stages of valvular disease. Corresponding clinical symptoms will appear when arrhythmias, heart failure or thromboembolic events occur. Patients often experience palpitations, shortness of breath, fatigue and lethargy after activity. Their activity tolerance is significantly reduced, and they experience dyspnea after even the slightest exercise (i.e., exertional dyspnea). In severe cases, they experience paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea and are even unable to lie down to rest. Heart valvular disease can also occur acutely due to acute ischemic necrosis, acute infective endocarditis, etc., showing symptoms of acute heart failure such as acute pulmonary edema.

Some patients, especially those with mitral stenosis, may experience hemoptysis. In mild cases, there will be blood in the sputum, while in severe cases, a large amount of fresh blood will be coughed up at one time. In acute left heart failure, a large amount of pink foamy sputum may be coughed up. In addition, prolonged lung congestion can cause patients to have frequent bouts of bronchitis, especially in winter.

Some patients, especially those with aortic valve stenosis, may experience dizziness, blackouts, or even fainting after activity. Precordial discomfort or symptoms of angina may also occur.

During physical examination, patients with valvular heart disease may be found to have characteristic heart murmurs of heart enlargement, valvular stenosis or insufficiency, such as the apical diastolic rumbling murmur of mitral stenosis, the apical systolic blowing murmur of mitral regurgitation, the diastolic breath-like murmur between the 3rd and 4th intercostal spaces on the left side of the sternum in aortic regurgitation, and the systolic blowing murmur between the 2nd intercostal spaces on the right side of the sternum in aortic stenosis. These manifestations of arrhythmia may include moist rales or wheezing in the lungs in acute heart failure.