Heart Valve Disease According to the American Heart Association,
about 5 million Americans are diagnosed with heart valve disease
each year. What Is Heart Valve Disease? Heart valve disease
occurs when the heart valves do not work the way they should.
How Do Heart Valves Work? Your heart valves lie at the exit of
each of your four heart chambers and maintain one-way blood flow
through your heart. The four heart valves make sure that blood
always flows freely in a forward direction and that there is no
backward leakage. Blood flows from your right and left atria
into your ventricles through the open tricuspid and mitral
valves. When the ventricles are full, the tricuspid and mitral
valves shut. This prevents blood from flowing backward into the
atria while the ventricles contract. As the ventricles begin to
contract, the pulmonic and aortic valves are forced open and
blood is pumped out of the ventricles. Blood from the right
ventricle passes through the open pulmonic valve into the
pulmonary artery, and blood