Some people are born with abnormalities of their valves, may even be born with a murmur; those people are likely to need surveillance through their lives because those valves can deteriorate. Other people can acquire minor valve abnormalities, one instance would be due to endocarditis, and those people need ongoing surveillance during their lives. So those are givens, they should be following regular medical surveillance with their doctor and paying attention to their body.
How do we address someone who doesn’t have any of those predispositions? Someone who is going along and doesn’t know whether they have heart valve disease or not? Now that’s a tough one. It’s a tough one if their only symptom is, “I’m tired all the time, but I’ve gained 20 pounds and I’m getting older.”
Because symptoms can change so slowly, tracking activity over time could be helpful. …show more content…
It depends upon which valve it is, and it depends upon whether it’s leaking or its stuck shut. They present in different ways over the time, but the end of the road is always the same. The end of the road is a failed heart muscle that’s not going to recover. The price of neglect too long is we can no longer fix it. Over the course of time, a heart that’s beating twice the volume it needs to because the Mitral Valve is leaking everything back in, it gets thin, it gets dilated, it gets weak and it stops squeezing. Now it’s like this. We can’t fix that. We can do something to the valve but the heart muscle isn’t going to survive it through the operation. End-stage heart failure is the last stop along the way, and the symptoms that people might be feeling as they take that train ride differ depending upon what valve they have, What might they be? The fatigue profoundly out of proportion your activities that they, (SHANE, What is missing here? Anything?) Chest pain with exertion can be due to your valve, doesn’t have to be just due to your coronary
How do we address someone who doesn’t have any of those predispositions? Someone who is going along and doesn’t know whether they have heart valve disease or not? Now that’s a tough one. It’s a tough one if their only symptom is, “I’m tired all the time, but I’ve gained 20 pounds and I’m getting older.”
Because symptoms can change so slowly, tracking activity over time could be helpful. …show more content…
It depends upon which valve it is, and it depends upon whether it’s leaking or its stuck shut. They present in different ways over the time, but the end of the road is always the same. The end of the road is a failed heart muscle that’s not going to recover. The price of neglect too long is we can no longer fix it. Over the course of time, a heart that’s beating twice the volume it needs to because the Mitral Valve is leaking everything back in, it gets thin, it gets dilated, it gets weak and it stops squeezing. Now it’s like this. We can’t fix that. We can do something to the valve but the heart muscle isn’t going to survive it through the operation. End-stage heart failure is the last stop along the way, and the symptoms that people might be feeling as they take that train ride differ depending upon what valve they have, What might they be? The fatigue profoundly out of proportion your activities that they, (SHANE, What is missing here? Anything?) Chest pain with exertion can be due to your valve, doesn’t have to be just due to your coronary