Valvular heart disease is a disease that does not produce symptoms initially but will start to show signs when you enter adolescence. While these symptoms are not severe, they are partly why early treatment is not possible. Whenever valvular heart disease occurs to any one, their heart functions less effectively. Otherwise, their lifestyles can be impacted, since they would feel tired very easily when they perform any activity and will not be able to work as effectively as they should.
Valvular heart disease will show severe symptoms as the patient approaches 40-50 years of age. The patient will experience increasing fatigue and tiredness in practically every movement. In some cases, death can result due to heart failure. Valvular heart disease is often caused by congenital defects in the heart valve tissues, which cause the heart valves to wear out more rapidly than ordinary people. A common site of valvular heart disease in Thai people is the heart valve separating between the upper and lower chambers of the left side of the heart.
Congenital valvular heart disease often displays no symptoms in childhood. However, signs of fatigue and heart palpitations will begin upon entering adolescence, making it the person be able to exercise less or work less. In some cases, just walking up 1-2 steps of stairs will already cause fatigue, and many patients cannot lie flat or feel like they just cannot breathe.
Causes of Valvular Heart Disease
- Valvular heart disease with congenital causes might produce no symptoms in childhood or during the mother’s pregnancy.
- Deterioration of the heart valve due to age. Because this organ is constantly moving and exposed to blood pressure, it becomes increasingly worn out. The heart valve will thicken and calcium will begin to accumulate in the tissues, thus preventing complete closure.
- Rheumatic heart disease caused by streptococcus infection in the throat. This is common in children whose immune system works against its own heart. As a result, heart valve inflammation develops, leading to significantly thickened heart valves, heart valve stenosis and regurgitation. This disease is a public health problem in the country and is frequently encountered in low-income people or people living in crowded communities.
- Heart valve infection causing holes to be created in the inflamed heart valve. The infection can be caused by an oral infection, unsanitary drug injections (in drug addicts), body piercings (e.g., tongue piercings and genital piercings), etc.
Nature of Symptoms
Valvular heart disease symptoms are not severe but are progressive in nature and it could be as many as 40 years before severe symptoms caused by increasing heart valve degeneration will appear and lead the body to experience fatigue and tiredness in every physical movement, and very severe cases may experience death resulting from heart failure.
Detection of Valvular Heart Disease
To accurately detect valvular heart disease according to standards, testing is performed by use of an ultrasound. In most cases, the ultrasound test lasts only 30 minutes and can let you know whether or not your heart has an abnormality and how it is functioning, including the direction of blood flow, rhythm of the heart’s pumping during respiration, and the opening and closing of the heart valves when pumping blood. It can let you know whether or not there is regurgitation, sagging or bulging in the heart valves, and doctors will recommend the appropriate treatment options based on the symptoms experienced by each patient.
Care
In patients with valvular heart disease that is so severe that the muscles supporting the closing and opening of the heart valves become saggy or bulgy or thickened, the doctor will diagnose whether heart valve repair surgery is needed. Surgery to repair damaged heart valves can allow some patients to return to live normally, but other patients might require additional repairs. For the most part, the doctor will perform surgery only in cases with severely damaged heart valves. If the damage is minor or moderate, the doctor will often recommend ways to behave and monitor for symptoms, because heart valve repair surgery is expensive and there is no guarantee that the heart valve surgery will fully cure the patient for the rest of the patient’s life after surgery, with some patients requiring subsequent repair operations, since much depends on the responses and self-care behaviors of each patient. Furthermore, while uncommon, some patients who undergo heart valve surgery experience hemolysis or kidney failure afterwards. In these cases, the doctor will recommend immediately replacing the affected heart valves. Heart valve replacement is also recommended for patients who experienced severely deteriorated or damaged heart valves, and patients can choose natural sources such as heart tissues from cattle or heart tissues from pigs or they can choose to receive artificial heart valves made from synthetic materials.
In any case, in the treatment of non-severe heart valve conditions, the doctor often recommends preventing infections from entering the bloodstream, for example, by avoiding dental operations when the patient has oral ulcers, or the patient would be advised to provide information about their body piercings, for example, in people who like tongue and genital piercings.
Appropriate Behaviors Upon Learning That You Have Valvular Heart Disease
In valvular heart disease cases that have not significantly progressed, symptoms will appear normal, and the patient will be able to live and perform activities like ordinary people. On the other hand, if the disease has significantly progressed, for example, to the point that the patient experiences severe fatigue even after performing minor activities, the patient will have to decrease their activity or work level. If the symptoms are very severe, the patient may have to refrain from their activities altogether and quit or reduce consumption of alcohol, smoking and consumption of salty or fatty food, etc. Furthermore, intense physical exercise is often dangerous to patients with severe valvular heart disease, because it can cause heart failure, and patients who require dental treatments such as tooth extractions and scale removal, which create wounds in the oral cavity, should exercise caution and inform their physicians in order to make appropriate plans to prevent infections. The same applies to patients who have to undergo any kind of surgery.
