Early diagnosis and medical advances have achieved greater control of this disease.
LAortic stenosis is a disease caused by deterioration of the heart valve, which makes it difficult for blood to flow from the heart to the rest of the body. “It is one of the most prevalent valvulopathies, being a disease with a mainly degenerative cause and therefore keeping a clear relationship with age,” says José Zamorano, head of the Cardiology Service at Hospital Ramón y Cajal, in Madrid.
In the TAVI procedure, a small incision is made in the femoral artery and a new aortic valve is inserted through a catheter.
The most important risk factor is therefore age. “One in 25 patients over 65 years of age and one in eight over 75 years of age suffer from it,” explains Raúl Moreno, head of the Interventional Cardiology Unit at Hospital La Paz, in Madrid. With the increase in life expectancy, the frequency of this disease is increasing and it is currently one of the most important health problems, points out this expert, who believes that, despite being one of the most serious heart diseases and frequent, it is not well known by the population.
According to data provided by Zamorano from the second edition of the Euro Heart survey – an initiative of the European Society of Cardiology-, aortic stenosis was the most frequently diagnosed and operated valve disease (41.2% of those included), and more than 90% of the cases responded to a degenerative cause.
In asymptomatic patients, the course of the disease is relatively benign; however, once it becomes severe and symptomatic, the median survival is close to two years if valve replacement is not performed. “This means that it is one of the most serious diseases, with a worse prognosis, for example, than most cancers. For this reason, anyone who has difficulty breathing or chest pain with exertion, or loss of consciousness, should see their doctor, who will refer them to a cardiologist if they suspect aortic stenosis or other heart disease. , Moreno points out.
therapeutic advances
However, early diagnosis and medical advances have achieved control of the disease. As both specialists point out, the treatment is very effective in most cases and consists of replacing the damaged valve with a new one that eliminates the obstruction, thus disappearing the symptoms and drastically improving the prognosis.
“The way to implant the valve can be through open surgery, but for more than 15 years there has been the option of implanting the valve through a catheter through a femoral artery, which is a less invasive procedure and with fewer complications, being able to performed without general anesthesia”, emphasizes Moreno. The implantation of the valve through the femoral artery, which began to be used only in people with high surgical risk, is the treatment that is now recommended at least in patients who are 75 years of age or older. M.B.