Mitral stenosis heart disease

It’s a frightening truth that innumerable people across the globe are becoming victims of heart diseases, day by day. Mitral stenosis is a kind of heart disease, which affects plethora of people, belonging to different geographical area, ethnicities, races, and cultures, etc. 

Mitral stenosis is the disease inflicting the mitral or bicuspid valve of the heart. Our heart is made up of 4 chambers, and again divided into right sided chambers, and left sided chambers. Mitral valve is present between the 2 left sided chambers of the heart. Narrowing of the Mitral valve is known as Mitral stenosis. 

Mitral stenosis causes:

There are myriad causes of Mitral stenosis, and let’s talk about a few of them: 

One of the most common causes of Mitral stenosis is another heart disease called Rheumatic fever. This disease has serious implications on the heart, along with many other organs of the body. 

It adversely affects the valves of the heart, mainly the Mitral valve. 

Although Mitral stenosis is seen among all sorts of people, it is more common among the women, who are pregnant. But, the reason why pregnant women are more prone to develop Mitral stenosis is still not understood clearly. 

Deposition of certain substances like calcium is also known to cause Mitral stenosis, by narrowing the mitral valve. 

Even though Mitral stenosis might occur during any stage of life, it can also occur among the newly born kids, as a congenital heart disease. Congenital heart disease is an ailment of the heart, which is present at the time of birth. 

Symptoms of Mitral stenosis:

There are a plethora of symptoms of Mitral stenosis. Let’s have a look at some of them:

Effort intolerance:

The left sided chambers of the heart are mainly concerned with the supply of blood to the entire body. As the mitral valve is narrowed in Mitral stenosis, enough blood is not supplied to the body. Without proper blood supply, we can’t work properly. So, this leads to effort intolerance.

Orthopnea:

As the flow of blood from the left side heart chambers is obstructed, blood flows back into the lungs, and gets accumulated in the lungs; this is called pulmonary edema. Accumulation of blood in the lungs prevents free flow of oxygen. So, people with Mitral stenosis develop orthopnea. These people can’t breathe normally, when they lie down flat on their bed. They can only breathe, when they are sitting or standing straight.

Hoarseness of voice:

Obstruction of the blood in the heart leads to increased size or bulging of the heart. This puts pressure on the nerves which are necessary for producing normal voice. As a result of this, voice becomes very hoarse.

Other possible symptoms:

Many other symptoms can also be caused due to Mitral stenosis like presence of blood in the sputum, when we cough. There might be formation of small blood clots in people with Mitral stenosis, and this finally leads to Embolic stroke. Embolic stroke is a condition in which brain gets diminished supply of blood.

Mitral stenosis treatment:

Mitral stenosis is a type of heart disease, which cannot be treated with drugs, as the deformity in the heart is present at the physical level. Mitral stenosis can be treated with the aid of surgical intervention. The most common surgery, which is employed to alleviate the symptoms of Mitral stenosis is balloon dilatation. 

In this surgery a balloon like instrument is passed through the mitral valve, so that its gets dilated or enlarged. Some drugs are used to control the symptoms of mitral stenosis, although mitral stenosis itself has no drug therapy-By Dr.Deepti