Heart Valve Disease: Overview

The heart has four valves: the tricuspid, pulmonary, mitral, and aortic valves. These valves have tissue flaps that open and close with each heartbeat. The flaps make sure blood flows in the right direction through your heart's four chambers and to the rest of your body. Heart valve disease occurs when one or more of these valves don't work properly.

Heart valves can have three basic kinds of problems:

• Regurgitation, or backflow, occurs when a valve doesn't close tightly. Blood leaks back into the chamber rather than flowing forward through the heart or into an artery.

• Stenosis occurs when the flaps of a valve thicken, stiffen, or fuse together. This prevents the heart valve from fully opening, and not enough blood flows through the valve. Some valves can have both stenosis and backflow problems.

• Atresia occurs when a heart valve lacks an opening for blood to pass through.

Heart valve disease can happen at birth or it can be acquired later in life. Heart valve disease that develops before birth is called a congenital valve disease. Congenital heart valve disease can occur alone or with other congenital heart defects.

This information has been adapted from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute.