When the ventricles finish contracting and begin to relax, the aortic and pulmonic valves snap shut. These valves prevent blood from flowing back into the ventricles. This pattern is repeated over and over, causing blood to flow continuously to the heart, lungs and body. Valve disease occurs when your heart's valves do not work the way they should. Two main types of valve disease are valvular stenosis and insufficiency.
Valvular stenosis occurs when a valve opening is smaller than normal due to stiff or fused leaflets.
This limits the forward flow of blood. If the valve opening becomes too narrow, the heart will have to work very hard to pump blood through the small opening. Blood flow to the rest of the body may be reduced. The normal valve opening is about the size of a 50-cent piece or larger. In contrast, stenosis may reduce the opening of the valve leaflets to the size of a dime or even smaller.