Walters announced that she will undergo surgery to replace a "faulty" heart valve later this week.
"You know how I always say to you how healthy I am. ... I've never missed a day's work," she began. "Later this week, I'm going to have surgery to replace one faulty heart valve."
From her description, the valve defect sounds like aortic stenosis. For a variety of reasons, mitral stenosis is a less likely possibility in the differential diagnosis.
Best wishes for successful surgery and speedy recovery!
References:
Barbara Walters to Undergo Heart Surgery. ABC.
Barbara Walters' Heart Surgery. WebMD.
From what I've read, I don't know what she has. Couldn't it also be Aortic Insufficiency, which has finally started to dilate her ventricle? I read this had been picked up on her echocardiogram in the past.
ReplyDeleteShe said the valve has become narrower = stenosis. Insufficiency = dilation.
ReplyDeleteShe said valve was "getting tighter and smaller." Would therefore be stenosis, probably aortic.
ReplyDeleteYep. Aortic stenosis (related to aging, wall/valve degeneration/HTN) is much more common than mitral stenosis - classically related to rheumatic fever. "Nobody" has rheumatic fever nowadays. The correct diagnosis has to be aortic stenosis...
ReplyDeleteMost propably calcific aortic stenosis which can be replaced by transcatheter ballon instead of surgery. I wish her luck and ask her to think about this.
ReplyDelete