Heart valves allow the heart to pump blood throughout the body efficiently

The human heart is the strongest muscle in the body, with four heart chambers and four heart valves. The heart pumps a one-way flow of blood out from the left chambers of the heart to deliver oxygen and nutrients throughout the body. Blood is brought back to the right chambers of the heart having got rid of the waste.

The upper chambers, the right atrium and left atrium, are thin-walled filling chambers. Blood flows from the right and left atria across the tricuspid and mitral valves into the lower chambers, the right and left ventricles. Ventricles have thick muscular walls for pumping blood across the pulmonary and aortic valves into the circulation. Heart valves are thin flap-like tissue, called “leaflets”, which open and close at the proper time during each heart beat cycle. These leaflets prevent blood from flowing backwards.

When the heart valves do not close properly or when the leaflets thicken, this can cause heart disease that leads to heart failure.