page_title: Mitral valve stenosis
section_title: Pathophysiology
hierarchical_section_title: Mitral valve stenosis / Pathophysiology
caption_attribution_description: English: w:Intracardiac pressures in individual with mitral stenosis.
context_page_description: Mitral valve stenosis is a condition in which the canal between the left atrium and ventricle is narrowed due to disease of the cusps of the left atrioventricular valve. Mitral valve stenosis may remain asymptomatic for years. When clinical symptoms develop, they may be similar to those of other heart diseases.
  Mitral stenosis is a valvular heart disease characterized by the narrowing of the orifice of the mitral valve of the heart. It is almost always caused by rheumatic valvular heart disease. Normally, mitral valve is about 5 cm² during diastole. Any decrease in area below 2 cm² causes mitral stenosis. Early diagnosis of mitral stenosis in pregnancy is very important as the heart cannot tolerate increased cardiac output demand as in the case of exercise and pregnancy. Atrial fibrillation is a common complication of resulting left atrial enlargement, which can lead to systemic thromboembolic complications like stroke.
context_section_description: The normal area of the mitral valve orifice is about 4 to 6 cm². In normal cardiac physiology, the mitral valve opens during left ventricular diastole, to allow blood to flow from the left atrium to the left ventricle. A normal mitral valve will not impede the flow of blood from the left atrium to the left ventricle during (ventricular) diastole, and the pressures in the left atrium and the left ventricle during ventricular diastole will be equal.  The result is that the left ventricle gets filled with blood during early ventricular diastole, with only a small portion of extra blood contributed by contraction of the left atrium (the "atrial kick") during late ventricular diastole.
  When the mitral valve area goes below 2 cm², the valve causes an impediment to the flow of blood into the left ventricle, creating a pressure gradient across the mitral valve.  This gradient may be increased by increases in the heart rate or cardiac output.  As the gradient across the mitral valve increases, the amount of time necessary to fill the left ventricle with blood increases.  Eventually, the left ventricle requires the atrial kick to fill with blood.  As the heart rate increases, the amount of time that the ventricle is in diastole and can fill up with blood (called the diastolic filling period) decreases.  When the heart rate goes above a certain point, the diastolic filling period is insufficient to fill the ventricle with blood and pressure builds up in the left atrium, leading to pulmonary congestion.
  When the mitral valve area goes less than 1 cm², there will be an increase in the left atrial pressures (required to push blood through the stenotic valve). Since the normal left ventricular diastolic pressures is about 5 mmHg, a pressure gradient across the mitral valve of 20 mmHg due to severe mitral stenosis will cause a left atrial pressure of about 25 mmHg. This left atrial pressure is transmitted to the pulmonary vasculature and causes pulmonary hypertension.  Pulmonary capillary pressures in this level cause an imbalance between the hydrostatic pressure and the oncotic pressure, leading to extravasation of fluid from the vascular tree and pooling of fluid in the lungs (congestive heart failure causing pulmonary edema).
  The constant pressure overload of the left atrium will cause the left atrium to increase in size.  As the left atrium increases in size, it becomes more prone to develop atrial fibrillation (AF).  When atrial fibrillation develops, the atrial kick is lost (since it is due to the normal atrial contraction).
  In individuals with severe mitral stenosis, the left ventricular filling is dependent on the atrial kick.  The loss of the atrial kick due to atrial fibrillation ( i.e. blood cannot flow into the left ventricle thus accumulating in the left atrium )  can cause a precipitous decrease in cardiac output and sudden congestive heart failure.
  Patients with mitral stenosis prompts a series of hemodynamic changes that frequently cause deterioration of the patient's clinical status. A reduction in cardiac output, associated with acceleration of heart rate and shortening of the diastolic time, frequently leads to congestive heart failure. In addition, when AF sets in, systemic embolization becomes a real danger.
  Mitral stenosis typically progresses slowly (over decades) from the initial signs of mitral stenosis to NYHA functional class II symptoms to the development of atrial fibrillation to the development of NYHA functional class III or IV symptoms.  Once an individual develops NYHA class III or IV symptoms, the progression of the disease accelerates and the patient's condition deteriorates.
caption: Intracardiac pressure measurements in an individual with severe mitral stenosis. Pressure tracings in the left atrium (LA) and the left ventricle (LV) in an individual with severe mitral stenosis. Blue areas represent the diastolic pressure gradient due to the stenotic valve.
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