Aortic valve disease is one of the most common valvular heart diseases (VHD). It affects several millions of people worldwide, and it seems that the problem will keep growing because of the high incidence of rheumatic heart disease in developing countries and the overall ageing of the population.
With a prevalence of 3-8% among the population =75 years and the currently absence of medical therapy, aortic stenosis (AS) remains associated with considerable morbidity and mortality. Approximately 50% of patients with severe AS are referred for cardiothoracic surgery, and about 40% undergo aortic valve replacement, via either a surgical or a transcatheter approach. Over the last decades, valve prostheses have demonstrated improving performance, but the ideal prosthesis still does not exist. Complications are not exceptional and degeneration remains unavoidable.
A major management challenge is deciding on the correct timing of aortic valve replacement. Risk stratification in asymptomatic patients and identifying characteristics of poor prognosis in symptomatic subjects are key elements. Echocardiography remains central however aortic valve imaging may benefit from new alternative or complimentary multimodality imaging. Also new circulating biomarkers could help identifying patients with asymptomatic disease who may benefit from early AVR. Overall, the increasing understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of AS contributes to improve its management.
Aortic valve disease represents therefore an area of intensive research and with the current Research Topic, the Topic Editors wish to provide the scientific and medical community with a comprehensive overview of the disease, from epidemiology to clinical management of patients, through pathophysiology and biology.
This Research Topic is intended to gather up-to-date basic science and clinical findings that can be of interest to biologists, cardiologists, radiologists and cardiac surgeons. A special focus is given to recent progress of imaging, biomarker and risk factor studies, as well as nonsurgical AVR techniques. The Topic Editors welcome various types of articles, such as original research, review articles, methodology articles or case reports.
Aortic valve disease is one of the most common valvular heart diseases (VHD). It affects several millions of people worldwide, and it seems that the problem will keep growing because of the high incidence of rheumatic heart disease in developing countries and the overall ageing of the population.
With a prevalence of 3-8% among the population =75 years and the currently absence of medical therapy, aortic stenosis (AS) remains associated with considerable morbidity and mortality. Approximately 50% of patients with severe AS are referred for cardiothoracic surgery, and about 40% undergo aortic valve replacement, via either a surgical or a transcatheter approach. Over the last decades, valve prostheses have demonstrated improving performance, but the ideal prosthesis still does not exist. Complications are not exceptional and degeneration remains unavoidable.
A major management challenge is deciding on the correct timing of aortic valve replacement. Risk stratification in asymptomatic patients and identifying characteristics of poor prognosis in symptomatic subjects are key elements. Echocardiography remains central however aortic valve imaging may benefit from new alternative or complimentary multimodality imaging. Also new circulating biomarkers could help identifying patients with asymptomatic disease who may benefit from early AVR. Overall, the increasing understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of AS contributes to improve its management.
Aortic valve disease represents therefore an area of intensive research and with the current Research Topic, the Topic Editors wish to provide the scientific and medical community with a comprehensive overview of the disease, from epidemiology to clinical management of patients, through pathophysiology and biology.
This Research Topic is intended to gather up-to-date basic science and clinical findings that can be of interest to biologists, cardiologists, radiologists and cardiac surgeons. A special focus is given to recent progress of imaging, biomarker and risk factor studies, as well as nonsurgical AVR techniques. The Topic Editors welcome various types of articles, such as original research, review articles, methodology articles or case reports.
