Explain how a leaky heart valve can cause health issues

A leaky heart valve is called valve regurgitation and is caused by the valves not completely closing. Any valve in the heart can have a regurgitation whether that is the aortic, mitral, pulmonary or the tricuspid valve. Now, when there is a leaky valve, the volume of blood leaving the heart is reduced as some blood flows into the wrong chamber when the ventricles contract, or by some blood flowing back into the ventricles when they relax. For example, when the left ventricle contracts the blood should flow through the open aortic valve into the aorta and leave the heart. But, with mitral regurgitation some of the blood will flow through the slightly open mitral valves and into the left atrium. This means the heart has to work harder by contracting harder to pump out the same amount of blood. This leads to the ventricles enlarging as more muscle is required and hence becoming more stiff. The most common symptom noticed is shortness of breath. If this is untreated, it can eventually lead to heart failure.