Cause

Nearly all cases of mitral valve stenosis are caused by rheumatic fever, which can follow an untreated strep throat infection. But many people who have mitral valve stenosis don't realize that they had rheumatic fever.

Other less common causes include:

• A congenital (from birth) heart defect.
• Infection of the valve or heart muscle (endocarditis).
• Hardening of the valve or its parts because of aging or severe kidney disease.
• Conditions that cause scarring of the valve (such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis).
• The diet medicine fen-phen. It was taken off the U.S. market in 1997 because of its link to heart valve disease.

Symptoms

Although mitral valve stenosis is a lifelong disease, symptoms usually take 10 to 20 years to develop and can take as long as 40 years. After you develop symptoms, they may not become severe for up to 10 years.¹

Early symptoms are often mild. In the later stages, the left atrium may become damaged, causing more severe symptoms.

Symptoms of mitral valve stenosis include:

• Shortness of breath.
• Fatigue or weakness.
• A pounding heart (palpitations).
• Coughing up blood.
• An irregular heart rhythm (because of heart failure from stenosis).

Other less common symptoms include:

• Hoarseness and vocal cord paralysis.
• Trouble swallowing.
• Chest pain.
• Skin color changes, such as pink to purple shades on the cheeks or a dark blue color on the body from reduced blood flow. Skin color changes occur rarely and usually only in the end stages of the disease.

You may not have any symptoms unless you exercise, are stressed, are pregnant, or have an infection or an irregular heartbeat. Or you may have only a few symptoms, no matter how bad your stenosis is.