“Heart valve diseases affect approximately 1.8 million people in France, i.e. all the inhabitants of Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse combined. However, they are unknown to everyone because less than 2% of French people know what a aortic stenosis, which is the most common heart valve disease” says Philippe Thébault, president of the patient association alliance of the heart. This is why this association, in collaboration with associations from Spain, Italy, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, initiated the 1st European Day of Awareness on Heart Valve Diseases, included on the calendar this Saturday, September 8.
“The problem is that the symptoms of heart valve disease (shortness of breath, excessive fatigue on exertion, dizziness, etc.) are often associated with “normal” aging. So patients don’t tell the doctor about it” regrets Philippe Thébault who hopes that this awareness day will encourage all people over 65 to ask their doctor to take out the stethoscope and listen their heartbeats at their next consultation. “With this instrument, the doctor can detect an unusual sound called a “heart murmur” and refer the patient to a cardiologist who can confirm the diagnosis with an ultrasound”.
What are heart valve diseases?
The hearthas 4 heart valves that allow blood to flow in one direction only. The mitral valve and the tricuspid valve control the flow of blood into the chambers of the heart while the aortic and pulmonary valves control the evacuation of blood out of the chambers of the heart. These valves can have two types of malfunction:
- valvular insufficiency (or leak): the valve closes badly and is no longer sealed, which results in regurgitation, that is to say a reflux of blood towards the atrium or the ventricle.
- valve stenosis (or narrowing): the valve can no longer open properly, which slows down the passage of blood from one cavity to another.
The treatment consists of repairing the faulty valve or replacing it with a mechanical (titanium or carbon) or biological (composed of porcine or bovine tissue) prosthesis.
To better understand this information campaign in Ile de France as part of the European Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day on September 8… #allianceducoeur#valvulopathies#To be certainpic.twitter.com/w6kdjsmxzU
— AllianceCoeur (@AllianceCoeur) September 6, 2018
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