Aortic valve stenosis

Author(s):  
Philippe Pibarot ◽  
Helmut Baumgartner ◽  
Marie-Annick Clavel ◽  
Nancy Côté ◽  
Stefan Orwat

Aortic valve stenosis (AS) is the most prevalent valvular heart disease and is increasingly diagnosed in high-income countries due to an ageing population but also to more widely available diagnostic tools. The prevalence of AS is estimated at ~0.5% in the general population, ~2–3% in the population over 65 years old. This disease starts with mild fibrosis and calcification and thickening of the aortic valve leaflets without obstruction of blood flow, which is termed aortic sclerosis, and evolves over the years to severe calcification with impaired leaflet mobility and significant obstruction to blood flow, i.e. AS. The clinical presentation includes the spectrum from asymptomatic patients with different grades (mild, moderate, severe) of AS severity to symptomatic patients with severe AS who may present with preserved or already depressed left ventricular (LV) function and/or reduced transvalvular flow. Accurate assessment of the AS anatomic and haemodynamic severity as well as the extent of cardiac damage associated with AS are crucial for the therapeutic management of patients with AS. Doppler-echocardiography is the method of choice providing a comprehensive non-invasive diagnostic work-up of these patients.

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 269
Author(s):  
Shinya Takahashi ◽  
Taiichi Takasaki ◽  
Futoshi Tadehara ◽  
Takahiro Taguchi ◽  
Keijiro Katayama ◽  
...  

An 86-year-old woman presented with chest pain and discomfort. Echocardiography revealed severe aortic valve stenosis and asymmetric septal hypertrophy. Aortic valve replacement and myectomy were performed using a curved knife. The blade was U-shaped in cross-section, and was curved upward along the long axis. Hypertrophic septal myocardium was removed along the long axis of the left ventricle (LV), and a groove for blood flow was constructed. The patient was discharged uneventfully without recurrence of her chest discomfort. Our result suggested that a curved knife is a reasonable option for transaortic septal myectomy in patients with obstructive LV hypertrophy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 100801
Author(s):  
João Abecasis ◽  
Daniel Gomes Pinto ◽  
Sância Ramos ◽  
Pier Giorgio Masci ◽  
Nuno Cardim ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Maria Concetta Pastore ◽  
Giulia Elena Mandoli ◽  
Aleksander Dokollari ◽  
Gianluigi Bisleri ◽  
Flavio D’Ascenzi ◽  
...  

Abstract Thanks to the improvement in mitral regurgitation (MR) diagnostic and therapeutic management, with the introduction of minimally invasive techniques which have considerably reduced the individual surgical risk, the optimization of the timing for MR “open” or percutaneous surgical treatment has become a main concern which has highly raised scientific interest. In fact, the current indications for intervention in MR, especially in asymptomatic patients, rely on echocardiographic criteria with high severity cut-offs that are fulfilled only when not only mitral valve apparatus but also the cardiac chambers’ structure and function are severely impaired, which results in poor benefits for post-operative clinical outcome. This led to the need of new indices to redefine the optimal surgical timing in these patients. Speckle tracking echocardiography provides early markers of cardiac dysfunction due to subtle myocardial impairment; therefore, it could offer pivotal information in this setting. In fact, left ventricular and left atrial strains have already shown evidence about their usefulness in recognizing MR impact not only on symptoms and quality of life but also on cardiovascular events and new-onset atrial fibrillation in these patients. Moreover, right ventricular strain could be used to identify those patients with advanced cardiac damage and different grades of right ventricular dysfunction, which entails higher risks for cardiac surgery that could overweigh surgical benefits. This review aims to describe the importance of reconsidering the timing of intervention in MR and to analyze the potential additive value of speckle tracking echocardiography in this clinical setting.


2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (10) ◽  
pp. S253
Author(s):  
K. Le Quang ◽  
R. Bouchareb ◽  
M. Laplante ◽  
D. Fournier ◽  
M. Boulanger ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 1486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Carracedo ◽  
Oscar Persson ◽  
Peter Saliba-Gustafsson ◽  
Gonzalo Artiach ◽  
Ewa Ehrenborg ◽  
...  

Autophagy serves as a cell survival mechanism which becomes dysregulated under pathological conditions and aging. Aortic valve thickening and calcification causing left ventricular outflow obstruction is known as calcific aortic valve stenosis (CAVS). CAVS is a chronic and progressive disease which increases in incidence and severity with age. Currently, no medical treatment exists for CAVS, and the role of autophagy in the disease remains largely unexplored. To further understand the role of autophagy in the progression of CAVS, we analyzed expression of key autophagy genes in healthy, thickened, and calcified valve tissue from 55 patients, and compared them with nine patients without significant CAVS, undergoing surgery for aortic regurgitation (AR). This revealed a upregulation in autophagy exclusively in the calcified tissue of CAVS patients. This difference in autophagy between CAVS and AR was explored by LC3 lipidation in valvular interstitial cells (VICs), revealing an upregulation in autophagic flux in CAVS patients. Inhibition of autophagy by bafilomycin-A1 led to a decrease in VIC survival. Finally, treatment of VICs with high phosphate led to an increase in autophagic activity. In conclusion, our data suggests that autophagy is upregulated in the calcified tissue of CAVS, serving as a compensatory and pro-survival mechanism.


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