Chordae tendineae

Looks like

Fine tendon cords, like the strings of a parachute, running from the papillary muscles of the ventricles to the edges of the mitral and tricuspid valve leaflets.

What it does

Stop the valve leaflets flipping back into the atria when the ventricles squeeze.

Keeping it well

A torn cord lets a leaflet flail — sudden breathlessness and a new murmur, often after a heart attack or in a floppy mitral valve — and needs urgent repair.

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