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Structural abnormalities can affect the heart’s valves, chambers, chamber walls, muscle, and major arteries. “Today, most people with serious structural heart disease can be treated effectively and afterward lead a normal life,” says Yale medicine cardiac surgeon Matthew Williams, MD. While open heart surgery may still be the best solution in some cases, minimally invasive catheter-based therapies have made care easier on patients, with fewer complications and quicker recoveries. The good news is that treatments for structural heart disease are improving. It’s a term commonly used to describe defects or disorders in the heart’s structure-its valves, for instance.Ī heart problem that is structural may be congenital, meaning it was present at birth, or it can result from aging or underlying diseases causing wear and tear on the heart later in life. Structural heart disease is a different problem. If you are eating healthy and going to the gym, you’re doing important work toward preventing coronary heart disease, which is caused by plaque buildup in the arteries that can cause chest pain and even heart attack.
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