BACKGROUND Hypercholesterolemia and old age are clinical risk factors for development of aortic valve stenosis, and hypercholesterolemia is a putative therapeutic target. We tested the hypothesis that calcification and aortic valve stenosis would develop in genetically hypercholesterolemic old mice. METHODS AND RESULTS Twenty-four low-density lipoprotein receptor-deficient apolipoprotein B-10...

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 has been shown to share the same risk factors as atherosclerosis which suggested a potential benefit from statins therapy. Fourteen studies which provided the effect of statins treatment on aortic stenosis (AS) were meta-analyzed, including 5 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and 9 observational studies. In the RCTs, statins did not have any influence on peak aortic valve velo...

Congenital aortic valve anomalies are the cause of premature aortic stenosis in pediatric and younger adult populations. Despite being very rare, unicuspid aortic valves account for approximately 5% of isolated aortic valve replacements. Patients with aortic stenosis, present with the same symptomatology independent of leaflet morphology. However, the presence of bicuspid and unicuspid aortic s...

Calcific aortic valve stenosis is the most common valvular heart disease in developed countries. Without surgery, the prognosis is extremely dismal. Therefore there is general agreement that surgical aortic valve replacement should be offered to patients with symptomatic severe aortic valve stenosis. However, surgery is denied to approx. 30-40% of elderly patients with severe, symptomatic aorti...

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 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...

Clinically isolated aortic stenosis is most commonly caused by a congenitally malformed aortic valve. Many elderly patients with isolated aortic stenosis have a tricuspid aortic valve. It has been suggested in the past that inequalities in individual cusp size could be a factor leading to the development of the stenoses in these cases. In this study the width and height of individual aortic val...

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 mediumand long-term outcomes. Survival of patie...