A predictable percentage of the elderly population (over age 65) has a potentially life threatening condition called aortic stenosis.
Aortic valve stenosis means narrowing of this vessel, which branches out into smaller and smaller arteries to feed the entire body with oxygenated blood.
“Aortic stenosis is a disease of the elderly,” says Asim Cheema, MD, who’s board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular diseases and interventional cardiology by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Dr. Cheema is with Your Doctors Online, an online doctor chat site.
“It is present in 2-9% of the general population over 65 years of age. However, 4-8% of those over 85 years have aortic stenosis.”
An echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) or X-ray will detect this condition, which means diminished blood flow to the body.
Symptoms may be chest pain, dizziness, fatigue, fainting, poor kidney function, stroke and heart failure.
Half of paitnes will die if aortic stenosis goes untreated. A heart specialist must evaluate the patient to determine the best treatment options.
How is aortic valve stenosis treated?
Traditionally, treatment consists of invasive surgery to replace the aortic valve, or a symptom-relieving balloon valvuloplasty. However, there’s also TAVR.
TAVR is transcatheter aortic valve replacement and is minimally invasive.
There’s also TAVI: transcatheter aortic valve implantation.
TAVI involves a prosthesis called a Medtronic CoreValve. A surgeon delivers the prosthesis through the femoral (thigh) artery, or subclavian (beneath collar bone) artery, and the device expands into the area of the stenosis (narrowing).
This eliminates the need to remove the diseased structure, and the prosthesis can even be repositioned.
“Both CoreValve by Medtronic and the Sapien valve by Edwards Life
“Sciences are FDA-approved percutaneous valves to be used for the treatment of aortic stenosis in the U.S.,” says Dr. Cheema.
