Heart failure is preventable by just going for heart valve check ups

Heart valves are thin but strong flaps of tissue that separate the 4 different chambers of the heart. Therefore, there are 4 heart valves. The primary role of the heart valves is to cause blood to flow in only one direction. They are part of the central circulatory system, which are very important. Whenever blood circulation stops, the person will immediately die, because it takes only 4 minutes for brain death to occur.

 

There are 2 types of heart valve diseases, namely “stenosis” and “regurgitation”. Stenosis often occurs gradually. However, regurgitation occurs in 2 different ways, namely, gradually and suddenly. With gradual onset, the patient might not experience any symptoms at first, because the heart will gradually stretch and expand, pumping more blood to prevent congestion in the lungs. As a result, fatigue symptoms are often absent. On the other hand, continued regurgitation causes the heart to eventually fail to be able to continue pumping blood. In other words, the heart muscles become exhausted due to excessive stretching, thus contributing to these 2 types of heart failure.

 

Symptoms include bulging of the neck veins, blood accumulation in the liver, which leads to the liver’s enlargement, abdominal fluid retention and swelling in both legs.

 

Symptoms include blood accumulation in the lungs, exhaustion, inability to lie down horizontally due to increased fatigue, pulmonary edema, coughing of mucus containing bubbles mixed with blood, hypoxia and ultimately death, since decreased heart pumping to supply blood to the rest of the body causes low blood pressure, coldness of the hands and feet, sweating, low urine output, acidosis and death.

 

The heart will be unable to enlarge to increase pumping, leading to immediate blood accumulation in the lungs, pulmonary edema, loss of blood pressure, hypoxia and rapid death. The more sudden the symptoms, the more urgent it is to provide immediate diagnosis and treatment. It might be necessary to administer drugs to stimulate the heart and blood pressure and to perform emergency surgery to replace or repair the heart valve that is suffering from acute regurgitation as the only way to save the patient. Therefore, if you suspect initial signs of heart valve regurgitation, you should immediately consult a doctor in order to seek treatment before heart failure occurs.