For patients with severe mitral stenosis, a surgical procedure called valvulotomy may be used to widen the valve. Alternately, the valve may be replaced. Like mitral valve stenosis, mitral valve regurgitation is frequently due to rheumatic fever. It may also, however, be associated with various heart muscle disorders, may follow a heart attack if the part of the heart muscle to which the valve structures are attacked is damaged, or may be associated with mitral valve prolapse. It contracts to pump blood out of the heart, and then relaxes as the heart refills with returning blood.
Myocardial ischemia means that there is inadequate blood flow to the heart muscle.