Question:medium
Fish-mouth appearance of the valve in rheumatic heart disease is due to which of the following?
Fish-mouth appearance of the valve in rheumatic heart disease is due to which of the following?
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Chronic scarring and calcium deposits narrow the mitral orifice.
Updated On: Jun 23, 2026
- Rupture of valve
- Calcification and fibrosis
- Hypertrophy of ventricular wall
- None of the above
Show Solution
The Correct Option is B
Solution and Explanation
Step 1: Trace what chronic rheumatic injury does to the mitral valve over years of recurrent inflammation.
Step 2: Healing by scar lays down dense fibrous tissue, the leaflets thicken, the commissures fuse, and calcium deposits accumulate.
Step 3: This fibrosis plus calcification stiffens and narrows the orifice into a slit, the so-called fish-mouth or buttonhole valve seen in mitral stenosis.
Step 4: Neither a torn valve nor a thick ventricular wall creates that orifice shape, so the answer is calcification and fibrosis.
\[\boxed{\text{Calcification and fibrosis}}\]
Step 2: Healing by scar lays down dense fibrous tissue, the leaflets thicken, the commissures fuse, and calcium deposits accumulate.
Step 3: This fibrosis plus calcification stiffens and narrows the orifice into a slit, the so-called fish-mouth or buttonhole valve seen in mitral stenosis.
Step 4: Neither a torn valve nor a thick ventricular wall creates that orifice shape, so the answer is calcification and fibrosis.
\[\boxed{\text{Calcification and fibrosis}}\]
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