Heart Valves

[Orange4me]

My 43 yr old son is taking medication for High Blood Pressure, which he has had for years & previously tried to control through a careful diet. He has recently learned he has a heart murmur and further testing revealed he only has 2 heart valves.  I have never heard of this before.  Generally  he feels fine, he works out and runs & does not have a problem with shortness of breath. This came as a real shock!  What do you advise? Should he get a second opinion?

[skydnsr]

If a BAV is what he has, it's very treatable.  It would make sense that there would be a blood pressure issue.  The heart has to work hard to push blood through the defective valve, and that need for the heart to pump forcefully is what raises the blood pressure.  

[Orange4me]

Thanks for your response. There may have been some misinformation when the news was passed onto me...It does seem like symptoms would have shown up much sooner with only 2 valves. Yes it's possible that it is a problem with the Aortic valve,(BAV) I will go to the website that you suggest and see if I can learn more.

[skydnsr]

Could it be that your son has an aortic valve that has only two leaflets instead of the usual three?  This condition is called a bicuspid aortic valve (BAV).  It seems much more plausible to me that he has a BAV than that he only has two heart valves.  A physically active male in his 40's is almost the stereotype of a newly diagnosed BAV patient.  Someone who was born with only two heart valves would have been having severe symptoms since birth.  For more information about BAV, the website of the Bicuspid Aortic Foundation is a good resource.  Of course, you are always welcome to post back here.