Posted 2 years ago by Wales Gene Park
Aortic stenosis is the most common valvular disease in the Western world. It is caused by progressive narrowing of the aortic valve leading to increased strain on the heart muscle which has to work increasingly hard to pump blood through the narrowed valve. Over time the heart muscle thickens to generate more force, but eventually the heart fails leading to death if the valve is not replaced with an operation. No medical treatments exist to stop or reverse the heart valve narrowing. Current clinical guidelines suggest that an operation should be performed only when symptoms develop or the heart muscle is visibly weak on cardiac ultrasound scanning. However, symptoms can be difficult to interpret and in many patients the heart muscle has become irreversibly damaged and the heart fails to recover following surgery. Using MRI scans of the heart, the investigators have identified heart scarring which seems to develop as...