I just received an email from Cathy about her mother. The note reads, “Dear Adam – My mom has been diagnosed with a narrow heart valve. I believe it’s her mitral valve that’s the problem. Is narrow valve disease the same thing as stenosis?”

The simple answer to Cathy’s question is “Yes”. The medical term for narrow heart valve disorder is stenosis. Personally, I had stenosis of my aortic valve ^[1] which led to my valve surgery.

Mitral Valve Stenosis – Narrow Heart Valve

Narrow heart valves impact the rate at which blood pass through a heart valve. This can impact the heart and body in many different ways including manifested symptoms, an enlarged heart, and other precursors to congestive heart valve. Stenosis is often categorized as “mild”, “moderate” or “severe” depending on how narrow (impacted) the heart valve leaflets ^[2] have become due to calcification, infection or tissue degeneration.

Each of the heart valves – aortic, mitral, tricuspid and pulmonary – can become narrowed although it is most common in the aortic and mitral valves.

I hope that helps Cathy and you better understand narrow heart valves and stenosis.

Keep on tickin!