Valve Disease in Heart Failure: Secondary but Not Irrelevant.

Secondary regurgitation caused by the remodeling and dysfunction of the left or right heart chamber may complicate heart failure, worsening both symptoms and prognosis. Outcome studies have shown that patients' prognosis worsened as the severity of secondary regurgitation increases. Imaging and more specifically echocardiography plays a central role for diagnosis and serial assessment of secondary regurgitation as well as for timing the intervention and guiding the procedure.