Predictors and progression of aortic stenosis in patients with preserved left ventricular ejection fraction.

In this manuscript, the authors report on a retrospective study looking at the progression of aortic stenosis (AS) in 1558 patients with mild, moderate and severe AS and preserved left ventricular function. They conclude that the progression of severity depends significantly on the severity of the AS at baseline. Although the average rate of progression in AS mean gradient is slower than previously reported, a significant proportion of patients were observed to progress to higher grades of severity or AVR within the recommended time frames for echocardiographic follow-up. In this model, few clinical variables were associated with significantly accelerated progression: in patients with mild AS only age and gender and in patients with moderate AS renal disease and hyperlipidemia beyond age and gender.