Mild Tricuspid Regurgitation

Transcipt of video: Mild tricuspid regurgitation is often noted on echocadiogram reports and sometimes causes a little bit of worry and a lot of questions are asked on mild tricuspid regurgitation. What is this mild tricuspid regurgitation?

This is the schematic diagram of the heart in which you can see right atrium, right ventricle, left atrium, left ventricle, aorta and pulmonary artery. And mild tricuspid regurgitation is just a small leak from the tricuspid valve. Normally, the tricuspid valve is expected to close fully and prevent backleak of blood from the right ventricle to right atrium, when the right ventricle contracts. But even in nearly normal persons, there could be a little bit of leak in the tricuspid valve. Unlike the valves on the left side like the mitral and aortic, right sided valves can have some leak. That is, in the right atrium there can be some backflow from the right ventricle. That is known as mild tricuspid regurgitation. Similarly, another right sided valve is the pulmonary valve. There could also be some mild leak in the pulmonary valve, both these, in normal persons. Similar leaks on the left side are less. That is, mild mitral regurgitation and mild aortic regurgitation are less common. Then, these mild tricuspid leaks, are not seen on clinical examination. Mostly, they are detected on highly sensitive tests like echocardiogram. In echocardiogram, the Doppler beam can detect this small leak.