Kiana Shaffer
Human Biology 1010
Ryan Barney
April 17, 2013
Biology Paper: Aortic Stenosis & Aortic Insufficiency
You can’t truly understand how the news of heart defect affects you, until you know someone important in your life has it. My active 16 year old little brother has Aortic Stenosis & Aortic Insufficiency, we found out about this four years ago when he was having is yearly physical. My brother Kain has to go in every two years to get tests done to monitor his heart and while there is no concern right now for his heart, they must pay close attention. Aortic Stenosis is where there are problems with the aortic valve and it makes it hard for the 3 leaflets/flaps to open and permit blood flow forward from the left ventricle to the aorta (Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford). Each one of these leaflets act as a one- way door for blood to flow forward into the aorta but not backwards into the left ventricle.
The doctors found out that Kain only has 2 leaflet/flaps instead of 3 so this makes blood collect in the heart, so his heart is bigger than others, this leads to the second problem: Aortic Insufficiency. Aortic Insufficiency is a heart valve disease in which the aortic valve weakens or balloons, preventing the valve from closing tightly… this leads to the backward flow of blood from the aorta into the left ventricle (University of Maryland Medical Center). This condition causes widening of the left lower chamber of the heart and it can get worse over time, this results in the heart unable to pump blood to the aorta. With each heart contraction the heart tries to send out larger amounts of blood, this causes a strong a forceful pulse which is how they figured out that Kain had a heart defect (University of Maryland Medical Center). Kain’s heart defect is moderate but as far as treatment there is no medication but if it gets worse he may have to have open heart surgery when he is older and his heart is fully developed.
Symptoms’ of these inefficiencies of the heart include chest pain, fatigue, fainting or dizziness, shortness of breath, weakness after activity, and irregular heartbeats. When talking with Kain’s doctor, Doctor Elise Walker said that “in Kain’s case he is A symptomatic which means that while he has these heart defects he shows very little symptoms” (St. Luke’s Hospital Boise, Idaho). Even though Kain is very active with the High School lacrosse game he shows no problems and tests so far are coming back the same with little or no change. In most cases like these problems originate in the first 8 weeks of pregnancy so your born with these heart problems but don’t notice them until you experience symptoms or until you’re older. It can also occur if there is a defect in the gene, a chromosome abnormality, and any harmful environmental exposure. More often they have found that most patients are male verses female and ages from 14 to 25. The way it is diagnosed is usually when your physician hears a heart murmur and then sends you to a cardiologist. From there the cardiologist listens to your lungs and heart to get a better read of the defect, they can also do chest X-ray, electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, exercise electrocardiogram, cardiac MRI, or a cardiac catheterization (Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford). I know Kain had to exercise test where you run for 14 minutes and then they listen to your heart and asses the issues, he also had to wear a little machine that had patches coming off of it to monitor his heart rate when he slept and was not active (picture below).
Treatment wise surgery is the best way to open up valves and
the leaflets/flaps so that blood flow returns to normal. If we solve aortic
stenosis then aortic insufficiency will repair itself. As far as the treatment
options you can do a balloon dilation this is placed where the valve is and
then it expands to open the valve, valvotomy a surgical procedure that removes
the scar tissue that is blocking the leaflets, aortic valve replacement where
the old valve is replaced with a new one either tissue or mechanical, aortic
homograft where a new valve is replaced with a human donors, and pulmonary
autograft where a section of the patients own
pulmonary artery with the pulmonary valve intact is used to replace the aortic
valve and a section of the ascending aorta (Lucile Packard Children’s
Hospital at Stanford). After surgery your doctor may recommend antibiotics that
help prevent bacterial endocarditis. Patients who undergo surgery live healthy lives their
appetite and growth should return to normal. Writing this paper has made me
research all the different outcomes and procedures my brother may have to
undergo, but I’m happy that I’m now aware of these and don’t have to worry so
much because his case is classified as moderate.
Works Cited
"Aortic Stenosis." Aortic Stenosis. Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, 2013. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. < http://www.lpch.org/DiseaseHealthInfo/HealthLibrary/cardiac/as.html>.
"Ask the Expert." University of Maryland Medical Center. University of Maryland Medical Center, 2010. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. <http://www.umm.edu/ency/article/000179trt.htm>.
Primary Source: Pediatric Cardiologist Dr. Elise Walker at St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center. Located at 190 East Bannock Street Boise, ID 83712-6298 Contact at: (208) 381–2222.
