When a valve is too tight or too leaky, it is important to find out if the valve problem has created any additional problems. Your healthcare provider will most likely want to find out if the heart has enlarged or become weak from the strain of the faulty valve. It is important to pay special attention to symptoms, to check for possible enlargement, and to evaluate the overall valve and heart function. This is usually done with an echocardiogram as the first step.
Your healthcare provider may refer to this as evaluating your “hemodynamic function.”