Heart valve disease in general practice: a clinical overview.

The burden of heart valve disease is rising in line with increasing life expectancy and the prevalence of moderate or severe disease is 13% in people aged ≥75 years old.1 The most common lesions are aortic stenosis (Figure 1) due to calcific disease and mitral regurgitation (Figure 2) as a result of mitral prolapse or secondary to left ventricular dysfunction. Untreated valve disease leads to premature death whereas valve surgery may prolong life.2 However, patients with valve disease are often not detected or are referred late and there is a large variation in access to valve surgery across the country.3