Choosing Optimal Heart Valve Disease Treatment: Insights from a Cardiac Surgeon

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• Early Detection of Heart Valve Disease
• Importance of Diagnostic Testing
• Exploring Treatment Options
• Choosing a Center of Excellence
• Proactive Approach to Treatment
• Benefits of Early Intervention
• Full Transcript

Early Detection of Heart Valve Disease

Dr. Ottavio Alfieri, MD, stresses that heart valve disease often lacks immediate symptoms, making early detection crucial. Patients should be vigilant for subtle changes, such as arrhythmias or shortness of breath, which may indicate underlying heart issues. Early detection allows for timely evaluation and intervention, potentially preventing further complications.

Importance of Diagnostic Testing

Dr. Ottavio Alfieri, MD highlights echocardiography as a key diagnostic tool for assessing heart valve function. This non-invasive test provides valuable insights into the severity of heart valve disease. If significant disease is detected, it is essential to consider treatment options promptly to avoid progression and associated risks.

Exploring Treatment Options

According to Dr. Ottavio Alfieri, MD, heart valve disease treatment varies from minimally invasive procedures to more traditional surgical approaches. Transcatheter treatments offer advantages such as no need for anesthesia or incisions, but patients must weigh these benefits against long-term effectiveness, especially for younger individuals seeking lifelong solutions.

Choosing a Center of Excellence

Dr. Alfieri advises patients to seek treatment at specialized heart valve centers with comprehensive expertise. These centers provide access to a full spectrum of therapeutic options, ensuring personalized care tailored to each patient's unique needs. A center of excellence can offer the best chance for successful outcomes.

Proactive Approach to Treatment

Dr. Ottavio Alfieri, MD, emphasizes the importance of not ignoring symptoms or delaying treatment. Proactive management, including timely surgical intervention, can significantly improve recovery and quality of life. Patients should engage actively with their healthcare providers to explore all available treatment paths.

Benefits of Early Intervention

Early intervention in heart valve disease, as noted by Dr. Alfieri, can prevent complications such as ventricular dysfunction and pulmonary hypertension. Addressing structural heart issues before symptoms worsen leads to outcomes comparable to those of the general population, underscoring the value of early treatment.

Full Transcript

Dr. Anton Titov, MD: Professor Alfieri, you are a world-renowned cardiac surgeon. You pioneered several methods of heart surgery and have treated tens of thousands of patients with heart valve disease and other heart diseases of every degree of difficulty. How should a patient with heart disease think about choosing the best treatment, especially for patients in your specialty in cardiac heart valve disease?

Dr. Ottavio Alfieri, MD: First of all, you have to be aware that very often, heart valve disease doesn't produce immediately important symptoms. So, as a patient, you have to be rather careful and try to detect something different from what was the condition before. You may feel, for instance, some arrhythmias or dyspnea. If you are short of breath or have some of these symptoms, you need to evaluate your situation. This can be very easily done in any place. You can have an echocardiogram showing how the heart valves are functioning.

If important heart valve disease is found, then it is very important to be treated in heart valve centers where you can find all the experience and expertise to offer you the best treatment for your situation. The important thing is to be aware that heart valve disease can be treated differently. Treatment can be more invasive, or it can be minimally invasive. Treatment can even be done with catheters.

Obviously, we are all attracted by the fact that transcatheter heart disease treatment doesn't require anesthesia, an incision, extracorporeal circulation, or thoracotomy. Nothing! So everybody is very much attracted by that. But we have to consider the result of the treatment. If you're a young patient, you really have to consider that the most important thing is to have a treatment that can be effective for your entire life. You have to solve your problem definitively.

These are the considerations you need to have to be treated properly. You have to be in contact all the time with your doctors and be aware of all therapeutic options available today. You must have confidence in your doctors, particularly in their ability to have the availability of all the therapeutic options. If your doctor has only one way to treat the heart valve disease, then you're going to have that treatment. You are not offered what may be the best treatment. So it's very important to choose a center of excellence where you can have all the procedures available. In such a way, you can be sure that doctors will offer you the best treatment for your individual need.

Dr. Anton Titov, MD: So what I hear is it's important for patients, as soon as they notice that something is not as perfect as it might have been in the past, to be proactive in doing appropriate diagnostic testing. You mentioned echocardiography.

Dr. Ottavio Alfieri, MD: Echocardiography is probably the easiest diagnostic test. If echocardiography shows important heart valve disease, then you have to think about the treatment. The treatment should be carried out in centers that have experience and expertise.

Also, it's important to be proactive. A patient should not ignore the symptoms and sometimes follow just a conservative therapy path. Because doing the surgery early, at the appropriate time, is key to recovery.

Yes, because this is very typical for some heart valve diseases. For instance, mitral regurgitation, tricuspid valve regurgitation, aortic valve insufficiency, and many valve diseases are all asymptomatic for a long time. Unfortunately, when the patient becomes symptomatic, it is often too late because we already have some degree of left ventricular dysfunction, right ventricular dysfunction, or pulmonary hypertension. Your life, even after treatment, is not going to be as normal as that of the general population.

Addressing the structural heart valve disease early leads to the best result.

Exactly! Early treatment leads to a quality of life that is similar to a normal population. But the secret is early treatment!