We read with a great interest the manuscript by Benedik et al. [1] published in the recent issue of European Journal of CardioThoracic Surgery. Benedik et al. should be congratulated for prospectively addressing the issue of proximal aortic disease in aortic valve stenosis vs aortic valve insufficiency in a reasonable number of consecutively enrolled patients. The background of this study is of...

Aortic valve replacement in the setting of critical aortic valve stenosis with cardiogenic shock is associated with high mortality, yet surgery is the only definitive treatment. We present the case of a patient with critical aortic valve stenosis and cardiogenic shock who received a short period of percutaneous mechanical support and balloon aortic valvuloplasty that resulted in rapid clinical ...

BACKGROUND Dilatation of the ascending aorta in aortic stenosis may be partly explained by intrinsic wall structure changes, but the relative contribution of altered hemodynamics is unclear. The aim of this study was to assess the association between ascending aortic dimensions and valve stenosis severity. METHODS AND RESULTS An analysis of echocardiographic examinations was conducted in 296 ...

Children with congenital aortic stenosis have "excessive" left ventricular hypertrophy with reduced resting systolic wall stress that allows for supernormal ejection performance. If aortic stenosis is uncorrected, this pattern persists until adulthood. The effect of removing the aortic pressure gradient on left ventricular hypertrophy and wall stress in children with congenital aortic stenosis ...

Six patients with early systolic closure of the aortic valve are described with mitral regurgitation, double outlet right ventricle, left ventricular diverticulum, congestive cardiomyopathy, Eisenmenger ventricular septal defect, and aortic regurgitation with an aneurysmal ascending aorta, respectively. None had evidence of subaortic stenosis. Early sytolic closure of the aortic valve is thus n...

transcatheter aortic valve implantation (tavi) is a new therapeutic option for patients with severe aortic stenosis with unacceptable surgical risk for conventional aortic valve surgery. a bicuspid aortic valve (bav) is the most common congenital cardiac disorder (1% of the population) and currently is considered exclusion criteria for tavi, because it predicts an increased risk of adverse aort...

Calcific aortic stenosis is the third most common cause of aortic valve disease in developed countries. This condition increases in prevalence with advancing age, afflicting 2–3% of the population by the age of 65 years. The aging US population has led to a burgeoning number of valve replacements per year, which in turn costs the USA approximately $1 billion. The natural history, as described b...

Congenital aortic stenosis (AS) is caused by abnormal morphological development of the aortic valve. [1, 2] Valvular abnormalities may be accompanied by supraor subvalvular stenosis. The embryogenic process that forms aortic valves begins approxi‐ mately 31–32 days of gestation. Cavity formation in the basal portion of the truncus arteriosus is a key process in the development of the leaflet an...

RATIONALE Percutaneous aortic valve procedures are a major breakthrough in the management of patients with aortic stenosis. Residual gradient and residual aortic regurgitation are major predictors of midterm and long-term outcome after percutaneous aortic valve procedures. We hypothesized that (1) induction/recovery of high molecular weight (HMW) multimers of von Willebrand factor defect could ...

It has frequently been stated that congenital aortic valve stenosis cannot be distinguished with any confidence from discrete subvalvar aortic stenosis on clinical grounds, and that their separation rests on the results of hmmodynamic investigation and angiocardiography (Nadas, 1957; Ongley et al., 1958; Dotter et al., 1961; Braunwald et al., 1963; Engle and Ehlers, 1964). Our experience has le...