Heart Valve Disease

The human heart is essentially a four chambered self-priming pump. It has a series of 4 check valves, pieces of tissue that act like a one-way door that keeps the blood in the heart flowing in one direction, forward. Diseases of the valves have two basic causes - congenital valve disease that you are born with, and acquired valve disease that you develop with age.

If you are diagnosed with a heart valve disease either the valve doesn't close tightly enough (called incompetence) to keep blood from backing up into the chamber from which it flowed; or, it doesn't open widely enough (called stenosis) to allow adequate amounts of blood to flow out of the chamber.

Aortic stenosis occurs in approximately 5 out of every 10,000 people and is more common among men, and is increasingly common as you age. The most common type of valve disease is mitral valve prolapse or MVP.