A cardiologist reveals the symptoms of heart valve disease and how to treat them!
Diseases of the heart and blood vessels are the most common diseases in Serbia, and they attack both the young and the old. In order for the heart to pump and have a normal flow of blood, it is enabled by four valves. However, due to various disorders, they suffer and do not function properly. What are the symptoms of heart valve disease, do stem cells help in treatment, and when is surgical treatment necessary?
“Valves on the heart direct the blood and allow the blood to move in one direction, i.e. not to return to the ventricles and atria after being pumped out,” says cardiologist Marko Banović for RTS.
There are numerous diseases that can affect them, from starting to let the blood back up, but also making it difficult to pump blood from the heart.
“Diseases can be congenital, a consequence of rheumatic fever and, today’s most common form, a degenerative disease. Risk factors are arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure, smoking, blood fats and sugar. There is a significant increase in the frequency of degenerative diseases, which is taking on epidemic proportions,” Banović points out.
According to him, congenital diseases occur in younger patients, while degenerative diseases occur most often in the elderly. The process of degenerative valve disease is long-term and can last for decades. The gold standard for detecting valve problems is echocardiographywhich can accurately assess the situation. The most common symptom is suffocationbecause the heart has to work much faster and harder to supply the body with blood due to diseased valves.
“It’s like when you have a car and instead of 900 revolutions, it has to constantly work at three or five thousand. Every engine, from the ‘Fija’ to the ‘Mercedes’ will fail at some point,” explains Banović, stating that symptoms may include fainting, dizziness, loss of consciousness, chest pain, arrhythmias.
Covid, as a systemic disease, also affects the heart, by causing damage to the inner layer of blood vessels.
As far as treatment is concerned, Banović says that valves are primarily a mechanical problem and must be solved that way. Medicines, unfortunately, do not help much.
“The valve can be either repaired or replaced by open heart surgery as minimally invasive as possible, but also without opening the chest, but through the groin, similar to when a stent is placed“, Banović points out.
(MONDO/RTS)