Heart Valve Disease- Your heart valves lie at the exit of each of your four heart chambers and maintain one-way blood-flow through your heart. Heart valve disease can be caused by leaking or narrowing valves on either the right or left chambers or even both. As we age the heart valves become less flexible, stretched or torn. Common symptoms are breathlessness during exertion, waking up at night short of breath, irregular palpitations, angina (chest pain), swelling of the ankles or feet, tiredness, dizziness or even fainting. Treatment varies from taking diuretics in mild cases to surgery in severe cases.
Cardiomyopathies- These are diseases of the heart muscle itself. People with cardiomyopathies have hearts that are abnormally enlarged, thickened and/or stiffened. As a result, the heart's ability to pump blood is weakened. Without treatment, cardiomyopathies worsen over time and often lead to heart failure and abnormal heart rhythms.
Cardiomyopathy can be classified as primary or secondary. Primary cardiomyopathy can't be attributed to a specific cause, such as high blood pressure, heart valve disease, artery diseases or congenital heart defects. Secondary cardiomyopathy is due to specific causes. It's often associated with diseases involving other organs as well as the heart.