8 Surprising Signs of Heart Valve Disease
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May 12, 2021
To understand heart valve disease (HVD), you need to know what your valves do. There are four of them located in between the four chambers. “Valves are like gates or doors,” says Smadar Kort, M.D., director of the Valve Center at Stony Brook University Heart Institute in Stony Brook, NY. “They open to allow the blood to go in one direction and close to prevent the blood from going in the opposite direction.” That way your heart can take in blood from the body and send it out again. Keep reading for a quick breakdown of HVD, plus the clues that signal you might have it.