Aortic regurgitation

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Aortic regurgitation is leakage of blood back through the aortic valve each time the left ventricle relaxes.

Aortic regurgitation is due to deterioration of the aortic valve and the surrounding aortic root (base of the aorta—the blood vessel transporting blood from the heart to the rest of the body).
The deterioration sometimes occurs in a person with an abnormal aortic valve is bicuspid but may also result from a bacterial infection of the valve or rheumatic fever.
Aortic regurgitation causes no symptoms unless heart failure develops.
Doctors make the diagnosis because of physical examination findings, and they use echocardiography to confirm the diagnosis and measure its severity.
The damaged heart valve must be monitored periodically so that it can be replaced or repaired surgically once the leakage becomes significant and the heart starts to fail.

(See also Overview of Heart Valve Disorders.)
The aortic valve is in the opening between the left ventricle and the ascending aorta (the large artery leading from the heart). The aortic valve opens as the left ventricle contracts to pump blood into the aorta. When the aortic valve does not close completely, blood leaks backward from the aorta into the left ventricle as the left ventricle relaxes to fill with blood from the left atrium. The backward leakage of blood, termed regurgitation, increases the volume and pressure of blood in the left ventricle. As a result, the amount of work the heart has to do increases. To compensate, the muscular walls of the ventricles thicken (hypertrophy), and the chambers of the ventricles enlarge (dilate). Eventually, despite this compensation, the heart may be unable to meet the body