What is degenerative heart valve disease?

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What is degenerative heart valve disease?

The postoperative diet should be based on the principles of low salt, low fat, and less sugar.

At the same time, attention should be paid to the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension and coronary heart disease.

A 70-year-old male patient suffered from repeated chest tightness and shortness of breath for more than half a year.

Going to the hospital for examination, cardiac color Doppler ultrasound found that the patient’s aortic valve was severely calcified, severely stented, left ventricle enlarged, cardiac systolic function decreased, and ejection fraction (EF) was only 40%. He was diagnosed with senile degenerative heart valve disease.

Heart valve disease is a common heart disease, and valve damage caused by rheumatic fever is the most common.

With the aging of the population, senile valvular disease, coronary heart disease, and valvular disease caused by myocardial infarction are becoming more and more common.

Senile degenerative heart valve disease refers to the aging, fibrosis and calcium deposition of the heart valve tissue with age, which makes the valve and its stent function abnormal.

The main feature is calcification, which gradually develops from the annulus and the base of the leaflet to the edge of the valve.

It mainly occurs in the left heart and manifests as aortic valve stenosis or mitral valve closure, which can cause fatigue, fatigue, dizziness, syncope, chest tightness, angina, shortness of breath, and dyspnea.

It is more common in people over 60.

The onset of senile degenerative heart valvular disease is slow, with no obvious symptoms in the initial stage, and it is often accompanied by cardiovascular diseases, such as hypertension and coronary heart disease, which are easy to ignore.

With the widespread application of cardiac color Doppler ultrasound technology, the diagnosis rate of senile degenerative valvular disease has greatly increased.

The diagnostic criteria include: age greater than 60 years; echocardiography or imaging examination (X-ray examination) with calcification of valves or annulus; exclusion of calcification and heart valve disease caused by other cardiovascular diseases.

Medications include calcium antagonists, nitroglycerin, various receptor blockers, etc., and regular check-ups.

If it is found that the condition is still getting worse after taking the medication, surgical treatment should be considered.

Valve replacement surgery has been widely used to treat more severe aortic valve stenosis or insufficiency. Transcatheter aortic valve placement (TAVI) is a minimally invasive technique that has emerged in recent years and has become more widely used.

The 2017 guidelines for heart valve disease in the United States and Europe suggest that for patients with mitral regurgitation and symptoms, mitral valve repair surgery is the first choice. The mitral valve repair under thoracoscopy is less traumatic and effective.

The postoperative diet should be based on the principles of low salt, low fat, and less sugar. At the same time, attention should be paid to the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension and coronary heart disease.