Dr. Glenn Barnhart explains the symptoms of mitral valve regurgitation such as becoming short of breath. There are five structures of the mitral valve: annulus, leaflet tissue, chordae tendineae, papillary muscles, and left ventricle. All of these are taken into consideration when the mitral valve is leaking and not working right. There are four degrees of mitral valve regurgitation: mild, moderate, moderately severe, and severe. For more information about heart surgery at Swedish, please visit http://www.swedish.org/heartsurgery