The heart wears out as we age; learn life-saving options at Modesto event

As the years go by, the movable parts in our body tend to “wear out.” An example of this is our knees and hips in which we have access to the medical technology of total joint replacements with the goal to improve our quality of life.

The same thing happens to our heart valves. With our heart pumping 42,048,000 times a year and 3,363,840,000 times by the age of 80, the one way valves in our heart that are under high pressure, start to become inflamed and calcified. This process is slow at the start although over time, calcification occurs and the aortic valve develops small cracks which heal.

The valve becomes scarred and “narrow”, not allowing the heart to get as much blood flow out to the body. When the heart pump is unable to push enough blood out to the body through that narrow valve, the blood starts to backflow to the lungs and eventually, to the abdomen and feet creating abdominal fullness and swelling in the legs. The result is that we feel certain symptoms with mild activity such as shortness of breath, chest pressure, lack of energy, and light headedness.

We know that after the onset of these symptoms, we may only have 2-3 years to live prior to the disease progressing to end stage heart failure. There were no previous ways to fix the aortic valve other than open heart surgery – which not all patients are good candidates for based on their age and/or other medical conditions.

We now have the option of going into the big artery in the groin area, and replacing the aortic valve. Called Trans-catheter Aortic Valve Replacement or TAVR, this is a lower risk procedure in which the patient is home in two to three days and is back to their baseline quality of life within a few weeks compared to a few months with having open heart surgery. This an alternative to replace the aortic valve and have a better quality of life as well as living longer.

To learn more about TAVR and aortic stenosis, join us for a free community event “Turning the Valve on Heart Disease.” The event will be held Feb. 8 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Health Education and Conference Center, 1700 McHenry Ave. Suite 60B in Modesto. To register, visit www.suttergould.org/heat or call 209-548-7860, option to 2.

You can also call Mari Rossini, NP at 209-530-3774.

Rossini is the TAVR/Valve Clinic Coordinator at Sutter Health, Memorial Medical Center.

This story was originally published January 25, 2018 at 3:33 PM with the headline "The heart wears out as we age; learn life-saving options at Modesto event."