Backflow of blood through a defective heart valve is termed

• A. Regurgitation
• B. Stenosis
• C. Tachycardia
• D. Infarction

Answer: (A)

The essential idea is that valves normally prevent backward flow; when a valve doesn’t close properly, blood leaks backward during the heartbeat. This leakage is called regurgitation (also known as insufficiency). It may occur with any valve and leads to a volume overload in the chamber behind the valve, which differentiates it from a narrowed valve, which is stenosis and simply restricts forward flow. Tachycardia is just a fast heart rate, not a valve leakage issue, and infarction refers to tissue death from ischemia, not to valve function. So backflow through a defective valve is regurgitation.