Focal and patchy cardiac valve lesions: a clinicopathological review.

Pathologists and surgeons often encounter cardiac valves with focal or patchy abnormalities either at postmortem examination or during the assessment of a valve removed at surgery. Many health professionals including nurses, cardiologists, echocardiographers, sonographers and radiologists may be called upon to assess these lesions. With the development of increasingly more sophisticated and sensitive imaging techniques, including transesophageal echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging, more valve lesions are being discovered. Many patients with metabolic abnormalities, systemic diseases or storage disease have valvular findings. Some are characteristic and distinctive for the specific disease, while others are seen in numerous diseases. Most patients develop age-related valvular changes, and these are more frequently encountered with the aging population. A practical approach the health professional should take to assess these valve lesions is given. The major categories of disease that produce focal lesions of the cardiac valves are presented.