Mitral Stenosis Health Video

Mitral stenosis is a vavular heart disease denoting the narrowing of the heart's mitral valve. Learn more about mitral stenosis and the heart in this health video.

Take Action

Treat any throat infections
Visit your cardiologist regularly
Keep up with all medications

About this Author

Dr. Dave Weiland has been practicing cardiology in the Bay Area for 21 years. On top of operating a practive in San Pablo, CA for the past 15 years, Dr. Weiland works with eight other doctors in traveling all around the Bay Area to treat patients everywhere. Dr. Weiland graduated from the Ohio State Medical School in 1981; following that with an additional six years of study at Tufts University. Dr. Weiland received his training in cardiology at the New England Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, and now teaches medical students about cardiology.

DAVE WEILAND: Hi. This is Dr. David Weiland. Today, we're going to talk about mitral stenosis. Mitral stenosis involves the mitral valve, which is the main valve that allows blood to come from the left atrium of the heart into the left ventricle of the heart. The left side of the heart carries the oxygenated blood. Mitral stenosis is a relatively unusual disease in this day and age. Mitral stenosis is usually caused by rheumatic fever which is related to a strep infection, oftentimes many years earlier, as many as 30 or 40 years earlier in someone's life. Nowadays, antibiotic use is so widespread in treating sore throats and strep throat infections, it is unusual to see mitral stenosis in the American population. As a physician in this area, we see mitral stenosis more commonly in an immigrant-type population where throat infections aren't treated aggressively with antibiotics. However, there has been a big push recently for physicians not to use antibiotics for throat infections and for infections in general until there is a proven cause of infection. So maybe a disease that will see a [INDISCERNIBLE] over the next 15 to 20 years. If the mitral valve gets stenotic, "stenosis" means blocked, the mitral valve cannot allow blood to flow into the left ventricle. Because of this blockage, there is a back pressure of blood into the lungs, and the lungs fill up the fluid, making it difficult for the patient to breathe. The symptoms of mitral stenosis therefore would be shortness of breath with exertion, occasional chest pain, and difficulty lying flat in bed at night. These would be symptoms that are similar for congestive heart failure. The treatment of mitral stenosis would involve, number 1, making the diagnosis: The diagnosis is best made in this day and age with a cardiac echo, which can be done quite painlessly in almost any cardiologist office. A transducer is put on the chest. Pictures are taken on the mitral valve. We can actually measure the pressure and flow across the mitral valve with the echocardiogram. Prevention of mitral stenosis: Mitral stenosis is prevented by treating streptococcal infections, most commonly in the throat, in the early stages. This prevents the rheumatic fever from developing and it prevents mitral stenosis from occurring as I said many years later. If one has mitral stenosis, they need the careful care of a cardiologist for the remainder of their life. Serial echocardiograms can help us determine if the mitral stenosis is getting worse. If the mitral stenosis is getting worse over time, many patients require an open heart surgery with a mitral valve replacement. In addition, mitral stenosis can lead to enlargement of the left atrium due to back pressure of blood which can lead to arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation, and for this reason, many patients with mitral stenosis need to take blood thinners, such as warfarin or Coumadin, to prevent strokes from occurring. Once again, it is very important that anybody with the diseased mitral stenosis see a cardiologist on a regular basis and have regular echocardiograms.