Arterial hypertension in degenerative non-severe aortic stenosis.

Degenerative aortic stenosis (AS) is an active inflammatory process similar to that in atherosclerosis plaque. The aim was to evaluate the atherosclerotic risk factors, concomitant diseases and risk of cardiovascular death using the SCORE system in degenerative AS-patients aged 60 and over with preserved left ventricle ejection fraction related to severity of AS. Material: The database contains retrospectively consecutive series of 126 patients (mean age 69). Patients were analyzed related to severity of AS: severe AS with mean gradient of 64.6±8.7mmHg (n=79) and non-severe AS with mean gradient of 24.4±8.4mmHg (n=47). There were analyzed: age, gender, BMI, laboratory data, presence of hypertension (HA), diabetes, CAD, smoking cigarettes, positive family history, results of 12-lead ECG and coronary arteriography. There was estimated 10 year risk of cardiovascular death using the SCORE system. Results: Both studied populations presented high 10-year risk of cardiovascular death with higher SCORE in non-severe AS (5.64+/-3.3% vs. 6.95+/-3.13%, P=0.006). Multivariate analysis revealed that only HA was an independent parameter determining higher SCORE in non-severe AS (P<0.05). Conclusions: The non-severe degenerative AS-population had higher 10 years risk of cardiovascular death based on SCORE system than severe AS-patients, what was probably resulted from arterial hypertension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]