The valvular disease usually involves two conditions: valvular stenosis and valvular insufficiency. Valvular stenosis occurs when a valve opening issmaller than normal due to stiff or fused leaflets. The narrowed opening may make the heart work very hard to pump blood through it. This can lead to heart failure. All four valves can be stenotic (hardened, restricting blood flow); the conditions are called tricuspid stenosis, pulmonic stenosis, mitral stenosis or aortic stenosis. Valvular insufficiency, also called regurgitation, or incompetence, occurs when a valve does not close tightly. If the valves do not seal, some blood will leak backwards across the valve.
Depending on which valve is affected, the conditioned is called tricuspid regurgitation, pulmonary regurgitation, mitral regurgitation or aortic regurgitation. People with valve disease (except mitra lvalve prolapse without thickening or regurgitation) are at increased risk for developing this life-threatening infection. According to A.P. Yoganathan et al. heart valve disease which affects commonly the mitral, aortic and tricuspid valves, is one of the main problems of the cardiovascular disease (2003). If one or more of the heart valves are impaired and unable to function properly, it is necessary to go for heart valve replacement surgery.
