I’ll never forget my second opinion from Dr. Chaikin, a cardiologist in Los Angeles.

I was having my second echocardiogram…

Unlike many cardiologist, Dr. Chaikin was actually present during the echocardiogram. He studied the monitor as it flashed pictures of my beating heart and pictures of my heart valves. I studied the monitor as well – with great purpose and intent. But, I had no idea what I was looking for.

As it turns out, eight weeks later I would find myself having double heart valve replacement surgery via the Ross Procedure ^[1]. Similar to most patients, I became much, much, much, much, much more interested in heart valve anatomy once I scheduled my open heart surgery with Dr. Vaughn Starnes ^[2].

One of the questions I had was, “What does a heart valve really look like?”

I knew my bicuspid aortic valve ^[3]was a congenital defect. But, I didn’t really understand the impact of having two leaflets versus three leaflets. That said, I started looking for heart valve pictures.

Guess what? I found not one heart valve picture but many heart valve pictures! Scroll below to understand exactly what a heart valve looks like!

First, you should probably see a human heart diagram ^[4] to understand how the valves are located in the heart. In this diagram of the heart ^[4], you see the aortic valve, the mitral valve, the pulmonary valve and the tricuspid valve.

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As you can see, most heart valves have three leaflets, while the mitral valve only has two leaflets.

Now let’s take a look at a real heart valve picture from an actual human heart. This heart valve picture shows a heart valve with severe heart valve disease. The valve cusps are rigid and deformed due to the calcification of the heart valve ^[5]. So you know this is the aortic valve ^[6]. This is one of the reasons I needed to have heart valve surgery.

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Here is a heart valve picture of a heart valve suffering from mitral valve prolapse ^[7]. In this heart valve diagram, you will note the blood falls back through the heart due to the improper functioning of the mitral valve. This is mitral valve regurgitation also known as a leaky heart valve.

Keep on tickin!