ArticleCardiology2026
Graded Severity of Aortic Valve Sclerosis as an Independent Clinical Marker of Systemic Disease, Diastolic Dysfunction, and Mortality Risk: A Large Echocardiographic Cohort Study.
Article in Cardiology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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1 citing paper in PubMed.
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionAortic valve sclerosis (AVS) is highly prevalent in the elderly. However, the prognostic implications of different degrees of echocardiographic AVS severity, and its association with comorbidities, myocardial remodeling, and heart failure phenotypes remains incompletely defined.
methodsWe studied 42,959 participants from a large institutional echocardiographic database. AVS severity was classified as Normal (69%), Thickened (16%), Calcified (13%), or Severely Calcified (2%). Subjects with aortic stenosis greater than mild were excluded.
resultsIncreasing AVS severity was consistently associated with a higher burden of systemic comorbidities: hypertension, diabetes mellitus, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, heart failure, atrial fibrillation and renal disease. It was also associated with concentric left ventricular (LV) geometry, reflected by increased relative wall thickness and LV mass index. Worsening diastolic dysfunction was evident with increasing degrees of AVS, including reduced mitral annular e' velocity, an elevated E/e' ratio, increased left atrial volume index, and higher tricuspid regurgitation gradient. A rising prevalence of clinical heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) was observed. After multivariable adjustment including diastolic parameters, AVS severity demonstrated a strong, dose-dependent, independent association with all-cause mortality. Patients with severe calcification demonstrated the highest risk, with a hazard increase exceeding 60%. AVS severity was also a predictor of the composite endpoint of death and cardiovascular hospitalization.
conclusionsAVS severity assessed on echocardiography demonstrates strong, dose-dependent associations with systemic comorbidities, concentric LV geometry, and HFpEF, and carries substantial prognostic significance. These findings highlight the clinical relevance of AVS severity as an early stage of the aortic valve disease spectrum, underscoring the need for proactive management of the systemic disease continuum.
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