Mitral Valve Stenosis is a quiet disease that does not always reveal itself until later stages of the disease process. Symptoms that may present are shortness of breath, fatigue with activity, and progress to more severe symptoms such as swollen extremities and coughing up blood in later stages of the disease. Less common symptoms that can be seen are chest pain, trouble swallowing, throat hoarseness, and skin color changes. During auscultation examination a decrescendo murmur, also known as a diastolic rumble, can be heard during diastole at the apical listening region. An opening snap can be heard after S2; S1 will be loud and distinct, with an accentuation of the murmur beforehand. Testing done to diagnose Mitral valve stenosis include …show more content…
Echocardiogram, Chest X-Ray, Electrocardiogram, and Cardiac Catherization. The most common cause of Mitral valve stenosis is rheumatic heart disease resulting from rheumatic fever caused by a streptococcal strained bacterium.
Rheumatic fever is primarily not seen in the United States because of antibiotic treatments for strep throat. In the current day rheumatic fever and its results are now seen in just developing areas such as southeastern Asia, Oceania, and Africa.
Other causes of stenosis are inflammatory diseases such as systemic lupus erythematous
Patients at an increased risk of developing mitral stenosis include patients that have had rheumatic fever, patients with diabetes, Women, Elderly patients, patients with Atherosclerosis, Endocarditis, and patient with Marfan’s disease.
The normal mitral valve area is between 2 to 6cm2. In a patient with mitral stenosis the mitral valve area is less than 2cm2. The smaller opening of the valve impedes blood flow across and into the ventricle and creates a back-up of blood in the left atrium and pulmonary veins. Patients with severe chronic stenosis, the Left atrium becomes enlarged from the elevated pressures within the chamber. When the atrium is stretched it irritates the tissue and causes Atrial Fibrillation. With atrial fibrillation and enlargement, the left atrium has more difficulty emptying the blood out effectively leaving the blood moving at low velocities and causing
clots. Treatments of Mitral Valve Stenosis is usually management of the symptoms. This is done managing the fluid volume through fluid restrictions, salt intake restriction, and diuretic medications. Decreasing the amount of fluid in the blood will improve vascular congestion and relieve symptoms such as difficulty breathing and swollen extremities. Other management routes are heart rate slowing agents; these include beta-blockers and nondihydropyridine calcium channel blockers. These drugs allow for longer diastolic period giving the ventricles more time to accept blood as well as better contractility to increase cardiac output and relieve symptoms that occur during physical activity. Patients with Atrial fibrillation may be recommended to take anticoagulant medication to prevent the formation of clots in the Atria.
The structures responsible for these sounds are: pulmonary, aortic and atrioventricular valves. These sounds are results of vibration caused by closure of these valves. Other sounds known as "heart murmurs" are sometimes a sign of heart disease. "Murmurs can be produced by blood flowing rapidly in the usual directions through an abnormally narrowed valve" (Vander, Sherman and Luciano, 1985, p.326) and in some cases, as mitral valve prolapse, the individual does not show any symptoms.
Sever Aortic Stenosis (AS) is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in elderly duo to a bimodal age distribution ,degenerative calcification of Tricuspid valve is the major cause of AS in the population ,unlike the younger patient etiology which is : bicuspid valve calcification or rheumatic heart disease .1
According to “Heart Disease and Marfan Syndrome” (n.d.) Marfan syndrome is caused by a change in the gene that controls how the body makes fibrillin, a part of connective tissue that contributes to its elasticity and strength. It is also stated that Marfan syndrome is mostly inherited from a parent, but 1 in 4 cases occurs when the patient has no known family history of the disease. To add, the condition occurs
The heart is two sided and has four chambers and is mostly made up of muscle. The heart’s muscles are different from other muscles in the body because the heart’s muscles cannot become tired, so the muscle is always expanding and contacting. The heart usually beats between 60 and 100 beats per minute. In the right side of the heart, there is low pressure and its job is to send red blood cells. Blood enters the right heart through a chamber which is called right atrium. The right atrium is another word for entry room. Since the atrium is located above the right ventricle, a mixture of gravity and a squeeze pushes tricuspid valve into the right ventricle. The tricuspid is made up of three things that allow blood to travel from top to bottom in the heart but closes to prevent the blood from backing up in the right atrium.
In addition, Valley Fever has not received sufficient funding for research. Many milder cases go undiagnosed, which may mean that the reported cases are just the tip of the iceberg. The increase could be because of: • More people exposed to the fungus because of increased travel or relocation to the southwestern United States • Changes in the way cases of valley fever are being detected and reported to public health officials, or • Changes in factors such as temperature and rainfall, which can affect the growth of the fungus in the environment and how much of it is circulating in the air. There is no vaccine to protect against it and, in the most severe cases, no cure. The population of Phoenix has grown by ten per cent in the past decade, and newcomers have no acquired immunity.
The commonest defect is a narrowing of the main artery from the heart aortic coarctation. A regular ultrasound examination of the heart ... ... middle of paper ... ... s are relatively limited. So far, researchers think it will be possible to increase the final height by 5-10 centimeters, depending on the duration of treatment.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is an inherited disease that affects the cardiac muscle of the heart, causing the walls of the heart to thicken and become stiff. [1] On a cellular level, the sarcomere increase in size. As a result, the cardiac muscles become abnormally thick, making it difficult for the cells to contract and the heart to pump. A genetic mutation causes the myocytes to form chaotic intersecting bundles. A pathognomonic abnormality called myocardial fiber disarray. [2,12] How the hypertrophy is distributed throughout the heart is varied. Though, in most cases, the left ventricle is always affected. [3] The heart muscle can thicken in four different patterns. The most common being asymmetrical septal hypertrophy without obstruction. Here the intraventricular septum becomes thick, but the mitral valve is not affected. Asymmetrical septal hypertrophy with obstruction causes the mitral valve to touch the septal wall during contraction. (Left ventricle outflow tract obstruction.) The obstruction of the mitral valve allows for blood to slowly flow from the left ventricle back into the left atrium (Mitral regurgitation). Symmetrical hypertrophy is the thickening of the entire left ven...
Elaborate: The cardiac cycle of the heart is divided into diastole and systole stages. Diastole refers to the period of relaxation experienced by the atria and ventricles. Systole is the contraction of the atria and ventricles. The pattern of blood flow starts in the left atrium to right atrium then into the left ventricle and right ventricle. During its course, blood flows through the mitral and tricuspid valves. Simultaneously, the right atrium is granted blood from the veins through the superior and inferior vena cava. The job of the superior vena cava is to transport de-oxygenated blood to
The heart serves as a powerful function in the human body through two main jobs. It pumps oxygen-rich blood throughout the body and “blood vessels called coronary arteries that carry oxygenated blood straight into the heart muscle” (Katzenstein and Pinã, 2). There are four chambers and valves inside the heart that “help regulate the flow of blood as it travels through the heart’s chambers and out to the lungs and body” (Katzenstein Pinã, 2). Within the heart there is the upper chamber known as the atrium (atria) and the lower chamber known as the ventricles. “The atrium receive blood from the lu...
the aortic valve, between the left ventricle and the aorta. heart_chambers.jpg Each valve has a set of "flaps" (also called leaflets or cusps). The mitral valve normally has two flaps; the others have three flaps. Dark bluish blood, low in oxygen, flows back to the heart after circulating through the body. It returns to the heart through veins and enters the right atrium.
The heart is a pump with four chambers made of their own special muscle called cardiac muscle. Its interwoven muscle fibers enable the heart to contract or squeeze together automatically (Colombo 7). It’s about the same size of a fist and weighs some where around two hundred fifty to three hundred fifty grams (Marieb 432). The size of the heart depends on a person’s height and size. The heart wall is enclosed in three layers: superficial epicardium, middle epicardium, and deep epicardium. It is then enclosed in a double-walled sac called the Pericardium. The terms Systole and Diastole refer respectively and literally to the contraction and relaxation periods of heart activity (Marieb 432). While the doctor is taking a patient’s blood pressure, he listens for the contractions and relaxations of the heart. He also listens for them to make sure that they are going in a single rhythm, to make sure that there are no arrhythmias or complications. The heart muscle does not depend on the nervous system. If the nervous s...
Cardiovascular System: He does not experience any chest pain or palpitation. He does not have dyspnea or leg swelling.
A doctor can usually detect a heart murmur through a skethoscope. The whoosh is just a extra noise that the blood makses as it passes through the heart. Heart Murmurs are usually found in younger children and most of the time fix there selfs. They are caused by blood flowing through the healthy valves and do not require treatments. Heart murmurs can be caused by blood flowing damaged or unhealthy heart.
After getting rheumatic fever the child is more likely to have another recurrence but can be treated with antibiotics. Rheumatic fever can last between 6 weeks to more than 6 months. Because of this antibiotics can be given even after the disease has passed. It is also important to always finish all prescribed medications to avoid the bacteria from becoming resistant. Some people who were treated for strep throat might not have taken the full course of antibiotics. Making them more susceptible to
Liu et al. (861) state that the antibiotic Penicillin is widely used for the treatment and prevention of RHD. By giving regular monthly injections of antibiotics, rheumatic fever can be controlled, hence prevent the development of RHD. Prevention of RHD can be largely achieved if people at risk in endemic areas are screened. It is also believed that vitamins C and E as well as natural antioxidants can help prevent RHD.