Aortic Valve Disease

Question 1

Aortic Valve Disease

Aortic stenosis

Answer 1

Causes:

• stress over time (late adulthood)
• Bicuspid valve
• Chronic rheumatic fever (repeated damage and repair)

Question 2

Aortic Valve Disease

Aortic stenosis

Answer 2

• Left ventricle has eo generate higer pressures to get same amt of blood through
• Thickens muscles - concentric left ventricular hypertrophy
• New sarcomeres added in paralell

Question 3

Aortic Valve Disease

Aortic stenosis

Symptoms

Answer 3

Also get:

• Microangiopathic haemolytic anaemia
• Blood cells get broken as they get pushed tro stenosed valve
• Get schistocytes which give haemogbinuria (haemoglobin in urine)

Question 4

Aortic Valve Disease

Aortic Regurgitation

Answer 4

Features:

• early diastolic murmur
• collapsing pulse
• wide pulse pressure
• mid-diastolic Austin-Flint murmur in severe AR - due to partial closure of the anterior mitral valve cusps caused by the regurgitation streams

Question 5

Aortic Valve Disease

Aortic Regurgitation

Answer 5

Causes (due to valve disease):

• rheumatic fever
• infective endocarditis
• connective tissue diseases e.g. RA/SLE
• bicuspid aortic valve

Question 6

Aortic Valve Disease

Aortic Regurgitation

Answer 6

Causes (due to aortic root disease):

• aortic dissection
• spondylarthropathies (e.g. ankylosing spondylitis)
• hypertension
• syphilis
• Marfan’s, Ehler-Danlos syndrome