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Aortic insufficiency

• Overview
• Symptoms
• Treatment
• Prevention

Alternative Names:

Aortic valve prolapse; Aortic regurgitation

Symptoms:

• Palpitations
• Bounding pulse
• Irregular, rapid, racing, pounding or fluttering pulse
• Fainting
• Weakness , particularly with activity
• Shortness of breath with activity or when lying down
• Fatigue , excessive tiredness
• Chest pain , angina type (rare)
  • Under the chest bone; pain may move to other areas of the body 
  • Crushing, squeezing, pressure, tightness
  • Pain increases with exercise, and goes away with rest

Note: Commonly, aortic insufficiency shows no symptoms for many years. Symptoms may then occur gradually or suddenly.

Signs and tests:

Auscultation (listening to the chest with a stethoscope) detects a heart murmur. Palpation (examination by hand) may show hyperdynamic (very forceful) beating of the heart. Pulse pressure (the difference between systolic blood pressure -- the pressure during contraction of the heart -- and diastolic blood pressure -- the pressure during relaxation of the heart) may be widened, and diastolic blood pressure may be low. There may be signs of pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs).

Aortic insufficiency may be seen on:

• Echocardiogram - ultrasound examination of the heart
• Transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE)
• Doppler ultrasound
• Aortic angiography
• Left heart catheterization

An ECG test or chest x-ray may show left ventricular enlargement.

Lab tests cannot diagnose aortic insufficiency, but they may be used to rule out other disorders or causative factors.

• Review Date: 5/30/2006
• Reviewed By: Alan Berger, MD, Assistant Professor, Divisions of Cardiology and Epidemiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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