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carcinoid syndrome as cause p. 357
Ebstein anomaly and p. 302
heart murmurs with p. 296
pansystolic murmur in p. 295
The tricuspid valve has three leaflets: the anterior, posterior and medial or septal leaflets. Together, these separate the right atrium from the right ventricle. During systole, or muscle contraction, the tricuspid valve closes, and during diastole, or heart relaxation, the tricuspid valve opens and lets blood fill the right ventricle. Tricuspid valve regurgitation happens when the tricuspid valve doesn’t close completely and blood leaks back from the right ventricle into the right atrium. Tricuspid valve stenosis happens if the tricuspid valve can’t open completely, making it difficult to fill the right ventricle.
Let’s start with tricuspid valve regurgitation. Often, regurgitation is due to pulmonary hypertension which causes an increase in right ventricular pressure. This pressure then dilates the tricuspid valve, allowing blood to go backward. Another well-known cause of regurgitation is rheumatic heart disease, an autoimmune reaction that involves the valve leaflets and causes inflammation. This chronic inflammation leads to leaflet fibrosis, which makes it so that they don’t form a nice seal and instead let blood leak through. Still another cause of tricuspid regurgitation is damage to the papillary muscles from a heart attack. If these papillary muscles die, they can’t anchor the chordae tendineae, which then allows the tricuspid valve to flop back and allows blood to flow backward from the right ventricle into the right atrium. There are also congenital causes for this condition, like Ebstein’s anomaly, which is when a person is born with leaflets that are located too low, i.e., in the ventricle rather than between the atria and the ventricle, and this makes it hard for the leaflets to form a nice seal.
In all of these situations, blood flows back into the right atrium during systole. This movement of blood can be heard as a holosystolic murmur, because it’s possible to hear blood flowing through the valve for the duration of systole. Another possible effect is Carvallo’s sign, which is when the murmur gets louder with inspiration, or inhalation. This happens because the negative pressure in the chest brings more blood back up into the heart, and more blood makes the murmur even noisier.
Tricuspid valve disease or tricuspid insufficiency is a condition that affects the tricuspid valve, which is one of the four heart valves that help regulate blood flow through the heart. In tricuspid insufficiency, the tricuspid valve fails to close properly during systole, allowing the blood to flow backward into the right atrium. Tricuspid insufficiency most often results from rheumatic heart disease, which causes damage to the valve.
Signs and symptoms of tricuspid insufficiency are generally those of right-sided heart failure, such as ascites and peripheral edema. Diagnosis of tricuspid valve disease typically involves a physical exam, echocardiogram, and other imaging tests that can evaluate the structure and function of the valve. Treatment may involve medications to manage symptoms, as well as surgery to repair or replace the tricuspid valve in severe cases.
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