Heart Valve Disease: Symptoms, Treatment and What Patients Should Know

The useful part

That check resulted in the diagnosis of mitral valve prolapse, a common heart condition where the valve flaps become floppy and bulge backward into the heart. She had no symptoms, so the doctor cleared her but encouraged her to continue getting checked. Years later, Rubin, then in her 40s and still without symptoms, took her doctor's advice.

How it works

• Nothing." Nearly 30 years later, regular echocardiograms — a type of ultrasound that shows how well the heart and its valves are functioning — showed her valve had become dangerously narrowed by calcium...
• For decades, that prediction stayed in the back of her mind.
• Only this time, she was diagnosed with a congenital bicuspid aortic valve, meaning she was born with two valve leaflets instead of the usual three.
• Her cardiologist reassured her that she was healthy and told her she might need a valve replacement someday — perhaps when she was 80.

What to take from it

Rubin's story highlights one of the biggest challenges of heart valve disease:

Details worth keeping

It often progresses silently until signific...