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

Rena Rubin comes from a family with a history of heart disease, so despite having no symptoms at the age of 30, she was encouraged to get checked. 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. 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.For decades, that prediction stayed in the back of her mind."I felt completely fine," Rubin recalled. "I was active. I had no shortness of breath. No chest pain. 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 build-up. Her cardiologist’s decades-old prediction came true: ...