I just received a question from Laura which asks, “My mom was recently diagnosed with mitral valve regurgitation. During her discussion with the cardiologist, he said that her valve flaps were not closing tightly and causing a leak. What exactly does this mean?”

Understanding heart valve anatomy is critical to better understanding the diagnosis of heart valve disease and the surgical steps required to fix the problem. That is why this question about heart valve flaps is such a great inquiry.

Heart valve flaps are also known as heart valve leaflets. The flaps, or leaflets, are composed of tissue. The flaps sole purpose is to open-and-close tightly to secure that blood flows through the heart in one direction. Each heart valve has three (3) heart valve flaps, except for the mitral valve which has two (2) heart valve flaps. Below you can see two diagrams of the human heart* with the white valve flaps in the opened and closed position.

When the flaps fail to seal properly, heart valve disease can occur and a symptomatic heart murmur can develop. There are several different types of heart valve disease caused by faulty valve functioning. In some cases, the heart valve flaps can suffer from calcium-deposit build-up, known as valve calcification.

Personally, I suffered from two, heart valve flap issues which triggered severe aortic valve stenosis and my need for aortic valve replacement. My aortic valve was bicuspid AND it was calcified. FYI, here is a picture of a calcified aortic valve (bicuspid). You can see that the aortic valve flaps are fused bicuspid and there are white calcium deposit on the leaflet tissue.

I hope that helps explain more about heart valve flaps.

Keep on tickin!

This deserves a “Wow!”

I could ramble on about how neat this is… Instead, I’ll simply let Geoff explain. Here is Geoff’s email:

Hi Adam,

I am home from my surgery!!

The mitral valve repair was performed last Tuesday morning. I left Duke Medical Center, five days later, on Saturday morning at 9:45 am!

I am fairly weak and somewhat sore. But, overall I am doing great. I spent the first night after heart surgery in the intensive care unit (ICU). The breathing tube and TEE were removed in the first few hours after surgery. I had tubes coming out of me from many places – an IV in my neck, left arm artery, left arm near elbow and right arm.

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One of the most common feelings that heart valve surgery patients share with me is, “I feel soooooooooooooo alone.”

Ever wonder, “What does a normal heart valve look like?”

I did.

So, I thought you might want to know what I learned before I went into my aortic valve replacement surgery.

First, you have to know that all heart valves do not look the same. As you can see in the diagram of the heart below, heart valves differ in size. The aortic valve and the pulmonary valve are smaller than the mitral valve and the tricuspid valve. And, you can also see that the mitral valve is the only valve that is naturally bicuspid. A bicuspid valve only has two leaflets while all the other valves have three leaflets.

Here are some images that show how a normal heart valve functions in the heart:

I hope that helps answer the question, “What do normal heart valves look like?”

Keep on tickin!

Every few days, I see a picture or image on the Internet that REALLY captures my attention. Many times, those pictures are diagrams and illustrations that relate to heart valve surgery.

As I remember it, before my aortic valve replacement and pulmonary valve replacement surgery, I had a difficult time grasping what actually occurs during the operation.

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