What are the warning signs of mitral valve regurgitation?

If you experience coughs, fatigue, inability to lie down horizontally or exhaustion or unusual fatigue after walking up two steps of stairs, you have to keep in mind that all of these are warning signs of abnormalities in the left heart chambers of the heart where there is a separation between the upper and lower chambers. Medically known as the “mitral valve”, if the mitral valve regurgitates, blood in the left ventricle will flow back to the left atrium, causing the left atrium to receive more blood than normal. This can lead to blood accumulation in the cardiac system and for oxygenated blood from the lungs to fail to fully return to the heart, leading to blood accumulation in the lungs, followed by higher lung pressure and pulmonary edema.
Causes of Mitral Valve Regurgitation

-   Rheumatic cause.
-   Lupus erythematosus cause.
-   Primary degenerative cause.
-   Ischemic/Secondary from infarction.
-   Infiltrative disease/Thickening of leaflet.
-   Endocarditis/Destructive lesions (heart valve infection).
-   Congenital / Cleft leaflet transposed valve.

Treatment is possible without open-heart surgery

Traditionally, mitral valve regurgitation is treated by open-heart surgery to repair and replace the entire mitral valve. For mitral valve replacement surgery, the risks are quite high for patients older than 75 years, especially if they have co-morbidities like pulmonary disease, liver disease or heart disease. All of these conditions increase the risk of open-heart surgery. Although the heart valve might be replaced or repaired by stitching or insertion of rings to support and strengthen the heart valve, the rate of post-operative complications remain high. In any case, these patients do not want to undergo open-heart surgery.

However, today there is a new treatment option known as the “clipping” method (MitraClip™). It is a way to treat heart valve regurgitation by inserting a clip intravenously via the groin to reach the left heart chambers from through the right chambers to place the clip in the left chamber. The clip clamps down on the area of the heart valve suffering from significant regurgitation to enable to valve to close more completely.  This method can effectively reduce risk from surgery and reduce surgical complications in elderly patients while allowing patients to recover more swiftly by taking only 2-3 days of recovery in the hospital.
Receive a detailed diagnosis before treatment.

Treatment by use of the MitralClip™ technology (polyester-covered 2-armed clips) is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration in 2013 for patients with severe degenerative mitral regurgitation and chronic primary mitral regurgitation. That being said, patients have to undergo a thorough physical examination by echocardiography and trans esophageal echocardiogram in order to be assessed for the condition before and after treatment by a cardiologist who specialize in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery to ensure safe and precise treatment that delivers the greatest benefits to the patients.