Balloon aortic valvuloplasty (BAV) has been a highly successful therapy for children and young adults with aortic valve stenosis, resulting in both symptomatic improvement and durable increases in the aortic valve area. Despite enthusiasm for BAV in older adult patients with aortic valve stenosis in the mid-1980s, the therapy has had disappointing medium- and long-term outcomes. Survival of pat...

Aortic stenosis is 1 of the most common heart valve diseases among adults. When symptoms develop, prognosis is poor, and current guidelines recommend prompt aortic valve replacement. Depending of the severity of the aortic stenosis and the presence of concomitant heart disease and medical comorbidities, stress testing represents a reasonable strategy to help better risk stratify asymptomatic pa...

PURPOSE Hypertension is a known clinical risk factor for atherosclerosis. In experimental atherosclerosis, monocyte adhesion to the endothelial surface is enhanced and is considered to be an important early stage in plaque formation. We tested the hypothesis that hypertension enhances monocyte adhesion in experimental atherosclerosis. METHODS Twenty-two New Zealand White rabbits were fed an a...

BACKGROUND Patients with low-flow, low-gradient aortic stenosis have a poor prognosis with conservative therapy but a high operative mortality if treated surgically. Recently, we proposed a new index of aortic stenosis severity derived from dobutamine stress echocardiography, the projected aortic valve area at a normal transvalvular flow rate, as superior to other conventional indices to differ...

Background—Patients with low-flow, low-gradient aortic stenosis have a poor prognosis with conservative therapy but a high operative mortality if treated surgically. Recently, we proposed a new index of aortic stenosis severity derived from dobutamine stress echocardiography, the projected aortic valve area at a normal transvalvular flow rate, as superior to other conventional indices to differ...

We have investigated the prevalence of hypertension and the response of blood pressure to operation in 87 patients with lone aortic valve disease who underwent aortic valve replacement. In patients with aortic stenosis alone 26% were hypertensive pre-operatively (age and sex adjusted blood pressure greater than 160 systolic and or greater than 95 mmHg diastolic) and 24% were hypertensive post-o...

BACKGROUND Bicuspid aortic valves (BAVs) are associated with premature valve stenosis, regurgitation, and ascending aortic aneurysms. We compared aortic size in BAV patients with aortic size in control patients with matched valvular lesions (aortic regurgitation, aortic stenosis, or mixed lesions) to determine whether intrinsic aortic abnormalities in BAVs account for aortic dilatation beyond t...

Ventricular mass and O2 supply of the myocardium were evaluated in patients with left ventricular hypertrophy due to stenosis or insufficiency of the aortic valve and in control patients without cardiac disease. Calculation of left ventricular mass from the angiogram was verified by autopsy data in seven patients. Total mass, O2 consumption, and coronary blood flow, each was related quantitativ...

The disease conditions which cause functional change in the aortic valve include aortic regurgitation and aortic stenosis. The aortic sclerosis represents a thickening of the aortic valve, which could progress to the complete stenosis of the aortic valve if not managed. Aortic sclerosis is also considered as one of the markers for coronary atherosclerosis. The treatment involves conservative ma...

BACKGROUND Aortic-valve stenosis can be complicated by bleeding that is associated with acquired type 2A von Willebrand syndrome. However, the prevalence and cause of the hemostatic abnormality in aortic stenosis are unknown. METHODS We enrolled 50 consecutive patients with aortic stenosis, who completed a standardized screening questionnaire to detect a history of bleeding. Forty-two patient...