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Like other types of valvular heart disease, valvular stenosis may go unnoticed for years because mild forms tend to produce no symptoms. More severe forms may cause symptoms such as:
- Shortness of breath, sometimes severe, occuring in the middle of the night while lying down (especially associated with mitral stenosis)
- Fatigue, especially during increased activity
- Chest pain
- Swelling (edema) of the legs, ankles or other parts of the body
- Dizziness
- Palpitations
- Heavy coughing, sometimes with blood-tinged sputum
- Syncope (fainting) spells
- Cyanosis (a bluish tint to the lips, skin and other areas of the body)
- Multiple heart failure symptoms
- Stroke, usually due to a blood clot that forms in the left atrium due to mitral stenosis
Though these symptoms are the problems that patients may bring to their physician’s attention, valvular stenosis may also produce a number of signs that only the physician will be able to find. These signs include:
- Heart murmur, as detected by a physician through a stethoscope
- Lung congestion
- Arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms), including atrial fibrillation
- Hypotension (low blood pressure)
- Blood clots
- Changes in blood pressure between the aorta and the left ventricle for aortic stenosis
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