Anatom3DLeft posterior cusp of aortic valve
Valvula semilunaris sinistra aortae · Levá poloměsíčitá chlopeň aorty
Heart & arteries
Looks like
One of three pocket-shaped cusps of the valve between the left ventricle and the aorta.
What it does
Closes after each beat so blood cannot fall back into the ventricle.
Keeping it well
Calcifies and stiffens with age (aortic stenosis). Chest pain, fainting or breathlessness on exertion needs a heart ultrasound.
Related conditions
- 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (DiGeorge)
- Aortic stenosis
- Atrial flutter
- Cardiomyopathy (dilated, restrictive, arrhythmogenic)
- Chagas disease
- Congenital heart defects
- Coronary artery disease
- Diphtheria
- Down syndrome (trisomy 21)
- Eating disorders
- Extra heartbeats (ectopics and palpitations)
- Fainting (syncope)
- Friedreich's ataxia
- Heart failure
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
- Hypothermia & frostbite
- Infective endocarditis
- Kawasaki disease
- Long QT syndrome
- Metabolic syndrome
- Myocarditis
- Orthostatic hypotension & POTS
- Panic disorder
- Pericardial effusion & tamponade
- Pericarditis
- Peripheral artery disease
- Phaeochromocytoma & hyperaldosteronism
- Pre-eclampsia
- Raynaud's phenomenon
- Rheumatic fever & rheumatic heart disease
- Sepsis
- Shock (circulatory failure)
- Sudden cardiac arrest
- Sudden infant death syndrome
- Supraventricular tachycardia
- Takotsubo (stress) cardiomyopathy
- Tuberous sclerosis complex
- Valve disease (stenosis & regurgitation)
- Vasculitis (GCA & others)
- Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome