Heart Valve Disease and Tricuspid Regurgitation Treatment

February is Heart Month, a time to focus on your heart health and awareness. Heart valve disease is a condition that can affect your heart health, impacting about five million Americans every year. Here to tell us more is Dr. Jeremiah Depta, an interventional cardiologist with the Froedtert & MCW health network. 

What is heart valve disease? 

Heart valve disease is a very common condition. It affects 2.5% of Americans. The heart is a pump, and the purpose of the heart is to pump blood to the entire body. And valves function as doors that open and close to make sure that blood flows forward. And when those doors don't work properly, that is when somebody has a valve condition. 

What is the tricuspid valve, and why is it important? 

So the tricuspid valve is one of the four heart valves. It's a very important valve because it makes sure that blood moves forward when the heart pumps. When patients develop tricuspid valve disease, that means that door isn't working properly. Specifically, they can develop a condition called tricuspid regurgitation. That is where the valve is very leaky. That can make people feel unwell. They can develop fatigue, tiredness, shortness of breath, swelling in their legs and can lead to death if it's untreated. 

Why should someone choose the Froedtert & MCW health network for their heart care? 

The importance of choosing our health network is that we really have the latest technology to treat it. As an example with the tricuspid valve, in the past, only medicines were available. Patients rarely got open heart surgery because it was very high risk, but now we have the opportunity to repair or replace that valve through procedures that are less invasive, nonsurgical and allow people to recover quickly.