Structural Heart Disease: What It Is and When It Develops
Structural heart disease is a defect in heart structure, often a valve. Learn when it develops, what causes it in adults and why checkups matter.
In medicine, you may often hear about structural heart disease. Unlike heart conditions such as blockages or heart attacks, structural heart disease refers to a problem with the structure of the heart or a defect in it, one example being a defect in a heart valve.
Structural heart disease usually appears from the moment a baby is born, meaning it is congenital. It can also result from aging or from an underlying condition that ends up damaging the heart.
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How Structural Heart Disease Affects the Heart
Heart defects most often involve the valves. To pump blood well, the four heart valves have to open and close perfectly so that blood flows in the right direction. The four valves are the aortic, tricuspid, pulmonary and mitral valves.
The way the heart works can be compared to a house. When someone enters or leaves a house, the door has to open and close properly. When the door sticks or breaks, going in and out becomes a problem, right?
The same thing happens when your body has structural heart disease affecting a valve. If one of the valves is defective and cannot work properly, blood flows in the wrong direction or not as it should. This is just one of the many cases of structural heart disease that people often experience.
When Can Structural Heart Disease Develop?
As explained earlier, structural problems usually occur while the baby is still in the mother's womb. Today, advanced technology can detect heart abnormalities in a fetus before birth. Many babies and children also undergo corrective surgery to treat these heart defects, and this is usually done early in life.
In adults, it is different: structural problems arise because of other conditions, such as high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, infections, bacterial endocarditis and so on. In some cases, structural heart disease can also be triggered by a previous heart attack, or it may simply be an effect of aging.
Early Detection of Structural Heart Disease in Adults
If you are proactive about preventing disease, it is important to have a heart checkup at least once a year. This lets you take preventive steps and catch problems early if something is wrong with your heart, including a structural problem.
Many health facilities offer heart checkups, and one of them is Heartology Cardiovascular Center. Heartology is a health facility dedicated to the heart, run by a team of specialist doctors, nurses and paramedics. A heart checkup is also fairly affordable at just Rp500,000.
There is no harm in getting checked early to avoid structural heart problems that could endanger your life later on.
