valvular heart disease
Damage to the heart valves, leading to either narrowing of the valve orifice when it is open (stenosis) or leaking through the valve when it is closed (regurgitation).
Worldwide, rheumatic fever is the commonest cause of damage to the heart valves, but in industrialized countries it is being replaced by bacterial infection of the valves themselves (infective endocarditis) and ischaemic heart disease as the main causes. Valvular heart disease is diagnosed by hearing heart murmurs with a stethoscope, or by cardiac ultrasound.
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