Essay On Valvular Heart Disease

Systolic heart failure is characterized by enlarged ventricles that are unable to fully contract to pump enough blood into circulation to adequately perfuse tissues. The enlargement in ventricles is due to an increased end-systolic volume. If the heart is not able to sufficiently pump the expected volume of blood with each contraction, which in a normal healthy heart is 50-60%, there will be a residual volume left in the heart after every pump (Heart Healthy Women, 2012). With the next period of filling, the heart will receive the same amount of blood volume from the atria combined with that residual volume from the previous contraction. This causes the ventricles to have to dilate to accommodate this increase in volume. The dilation causes the walls of the ventricles to stretch and become thin and weak. Also the myocardium, the muscle layer of the heart, will stretch and not be able to adequately make a full and forceful enough contraction to push blood from the ventricles (Lehne, 2010).

Both the right and left atrium contract causing blood to flow though the two valves, and then into the left ventricle. The left ventricle pumps blood into the systemic circulation through the aorta. This systemic circulation system is much bigger than the pulmonary circulation system, which is why the left ventricle is so big. The blood on the left side of the heart is oxygenated. It becomes oxygenated when the deoxygenated blood passes through the right atrium and then flows into the left ventricle. It is then pumped along the pulmonary artery into the lungs where it is oxygenated. It then travels through the pulmonary veins back into the heart. It enters through the left atrium and then travels to the left ventricle. This process is repeated over and over again, to make blood continuously flow through the heart, lungs and body. This process ensures that there is always enough oxygen for the body to work

Left ventricle pumps the blood into the aorta, where the blood is supplied to the body tissues by the systemic arteries.

The flow of blood through the heart is controlled by four valves. If any are not working correctly, blood cannot flow or be pumped effectively to the heart. The four valves are: the tricuspid, pulmonary semilunar, mitral, and aortic semilunar. There are many abnormalities or defects that can affect their operation and in this paper, I will discuss the most common one which is a “mitral valve prolapse.” A valvular prolapse is an abnormal protrusion of a heart valve that causes the valve to not close completely. It is also known as “click murmur syndrome” and “Barlow’s syndrome” and is more prevalent in women than men. It has a strong hereditary

In a normal human being the heart correctly functions by the blood first entering through the right atrium from the superior and inferior vena cava. This blood flow continues through the right atrioventricular valve into the right ventricle. The right ventricle contracts forcing the pulmonary valve to open leading blood flow through the pulmonary valve and into the pulmonary trunk. Blood is then distributed from the right and left pulmonary arteries to the lungs, where carbon dioxide is unloaded and oxygen is loaded into the blood. The blood is returned from the lungs to the left

The heart is basically a pump that has to circulate the blood around the body delivering oxygenated blood to our organs and then returning deoxygenated blood to our lungs. There are four chambers in the heart, two atria and two ventricles. There are four main valves, mitral, aortic, tricuspid and pulmonary7b.

When the left atrium is filled with blood, the heart contracts and the blood passes through the bicuspid valve and into the left ventricle.

Disease, endocarditis or a congenital defect can result in heart valve problems. When the valves don't open or close properly during each heartbeat, the heart muscle has to pump harder to keep blood moving.

The mitral valve is located on the left side of the heart between the left atrium and left ventricle. The purpose of the mitral valve is to form a seal between these two chambers of the heart to prevent the back flow of blood. When blood enters the left side of the heart, it is oxygenated and enters through the pulmonary veins. The blood then travels through the left atrium; the bicuspid (mitral) valve then opens to let the blood flow down to the left ventricle. The left ventricle contracts, causing the mitral valve to close (preventing the backflow of blood).When the left ventricle contracts it is pumping the blood out to the remainder of the body. (Jenkins, 2007)

Blood flows from the tissues → superior and inferior vena cava → right atrium → tricuspid valve → right ventricle → pulmonary semilunar valve → pulmonary artery → lungs → pulmonary veins → left atrium → bicuspid (mitral) valve → left ventricle → aortic semilunar valve → aorta →body tissue.

Heart failure is a major health problem worldwide, but especially in the United States. The CDC estimates that over 5.7 million Americans are living with heart failure, and that

In a normal heart blood would flow through the right atrium, to the right ventricle, to the lungs, back to the heart, into the left atrium, and into the left ventricle.

Congenital heart disease- refers to a misshapen heart muscle as a result of a birth defect, changing the way in which the blood flows from the heart to and through the lungs and body

There are two main types of heart failure: left-sided and right-sided. In left-sided or left ventricular (LV) heart failure3, the heart fails to properly pump blood out to the body. Right-sided or right ventricular (RV) heart failure is usually triggered by LV heart failure and it’s when blood accumulates in the lungs increasing fluid pressure, damaging the heart’s right side. LV heart failure can be further classified into two types, systolic and diastolic heart failure, depending on the ejection fraction (EF). In

Mitral valve disease effects the cardiovascular system. In a healthy animal deoxygenated blood flows into the heart from the vena cava into the right atrium, it then passes through the tricuspid valve into the right ventricle. From here the blood travels through the pulmonary artery to the lungs where is it oxygenated, next it flows from the lungs to the left atrium via the pulmonary vein. Here it passes through the mitral valve to the left ventricle