Path: Valvular Disease Flashcards
What is heart valve stenosis?
Slow onset of an inability of a valve to open completely due to leaflet distortion, fibrosis or calcification.
What is heart valve insufficiency?
Slow or Rapid onset of an inability to close a valve completely leading to regurgitation. Caused by cusp disease or damage to associated valve structures.
Which two organs are most commonly affected secondary to valvular disease?
Lungs and Liver due to blood congestion
Complication of a congenital bicuspid aortic valve.
Rapid onset of calcification and stenosis
What is the normal pressure gradient in the aortic valve area and the pressure gradient in a stenotic valve?
Normal: zero
Stenotic: any pressure gradient, disease becomes serious around 50mmHg.
What is the cause of Senlle degenerative calcific aortic stenosis?
Normal wear and tear on the valve.
-senile means a condition that occurs as people age
Characteristic of calcific aortic stenosis on biopsy.
Osseous metaplasia: the tissue looks like bone
Morphological change of the heart with aortic valve insufficiency.
Left Ventricular Hypertrophy: the regurgitated blood increases afterload (end diastolic volume) and the ventricle dilates and contract with greater force due to increased blood volume.
What are 4 general causes of aortic insufficiency?
- Aortic Root dilation: syphilis, marfan, ankylosing spondylitis
- Aortic Cusp Abnormality: arthritis, marfan, HTN
- Increased Afterload: supravalvular aortic stenosis (coarctation), systemic HTN
- Pharmacologic: Phentermine-Fenfluramine (caused pulmonary HTN).
What are two general causes of mitral valve insufficiency?
- Abnormalities of leaflets and/or commissures.
- prolapse, inflammation, infection - Abnormalities of the Tensor Apparatus.
- papillary muscles, chordae tendinae, mitral annulus, calcification
Most common cause of mitral valve prolapse.
Hereditary Connective Tissue Disorder
-Marfan, Ehlers-Danlos
What changes occur to the tissue structure of a Floppy Mitral Valve (type of mitral valve prolapse)?
Valve leaflets become thick and rubbery allowing “billowing up” of valve into the LA. The chordae tendinae elongate and thin out.
What microscopic tissue type is lost in mitral valve prolapse?
Type III collagen leading to loss of structural integrity.
How can mitral valve prolapse lead to infective endocarditis?
Changes in valve morphology alter the normal flow of blood in the area allowing stasis and a reservoir for bacterial colonization.
How can mitral valve prolapse lead to stroke or systemic infarct.
Changes in valve morphology alter the normal flow of blood in the area allowing stasis and thrombus formation which can embolize to other sites in the body.