The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is launching a new education campaign on a disease that affects just a small segment of the population.
While only about 2.5% of American adults are estimated to have heart valve disease, it’s underdiagnosed because most people, even those with the disease, know nothing about it.
Dr. Janet Wright is the director of the CDC’s Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention. She spoke with Texas Standard about the symptoms to look for and the questions to ask your medical care team. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: A lot of people have heard of heart disease. What do we mean by “heart valve disease”?
Dr. Janet Wright: Yes, let’s take a little trip inside that beautiful heart. Each heart has four valves. And with every beat of the heart, each valve opens and closes. The valves function to send blood in one direction: through the heart, out to the body or out to the lungs.
Heart valve disease occurs when one or more of those heart valves either doesn’t open fully or doesn’t close and becomes leaky.
Doctors believe this affects about 2.5% of American adults. But am I right that most people who have it don’t know about it?
This little problem can be sneaky. So as beautiful as I know those heart valves are, we have to treat them with respect because they can cause a problem that operates below the radar for individuals.
So should everyone be asking for the tests to diagnose this, or only if you’re experiencing symptoms or have a certain family history?
Because heart valve disease can progress very slowly… We as humans are resilient – we tend to diminish the symptoms that we have and attribute them to something else. Maybe we didn’t sleep well, or it’s just aging. And it turns out these symptoms do deserve attention, so let me walk through them.
A person notices that with climbing the same hill they’ve climbed a couple of times a week, they’re more short of breath than usual. Or maybe they’re feeling more fatigued than usual without a really good reason. Chest pressure or tightness or maybe palpitations. Irregular or fast heartbeats can also be signs that the heart valves are not working well.
One of the most worrisome symptoms of advanced heart valve disease is a feeling of lightheadedness, like you might faint or even a blackout. Any of those symptoms should be brought to the attention at a regular visit with the clinical team.
Women more often than men are missed. Their heart valve disease might not be detected. And we’ve also learned that individuals who are Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino or Asian are less likely to be diagnosed and treated for heart valve disease. So make sure that you’re aware that there could be a risk of heart valve disease and ask your doctor.
First of all, if someone doesn’t listen to your heart in a regular checkup, make sure that they do. Just say, “Hey, could you take a listen to my heart? I want to know if I have heart valve disease.”
If in a regular visit they do listen to your heart, but they don’t say anything, just say, “Hey, do I have a heart murmur? Any chance I’ve got heart valve disease?”
And then would the next step be an EKG? I mean, is that the kind of thing that people might be worried about insurance covering and that sort of thing?
Great question. And, you know, I think one of the reasons that many of us don’t go in for visits is that we have a fear factor, and we’re afraid that we’ll either rack up a huge amount of medical bills, or maybe find out something really scary.
I want to assure people that the test most often ordered if heart valve disease is suspected, is what’s called an echocardiogram. It’s an ultrasound test. It does not cause radiation. There are no needles involved. It doesn’t hurt and it’s a pretty quick test. It may take 40 minutes or so.
So why is the CDC really pushing this knowledge campaign now?
You know, at the CDC we’re are on a mission to prevent harm. Some of those harms are infectious. But many of those harms have to do with chronic medical conditions that might be underdiagnosed or people might not be aware of. And heart valve disease is just a great example of that.
It turns out that three out of four U.S. adults aren’t familiar with heart valve disease, and that’s a perfect spot for us to fill the void with reliable, trusted information.
I would ask people to visit CDC.gov/knowyourheart. There are a number of fact sheets, there are social media messages, there are testimonials and patient videos of people who have experienced heart valve disease and how that experience affected them and what they did about it.
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