Considerable Proportion of Seniors Have Asymptomatic Valvular Heart Disease

TUESDAY, July 16, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- A considerable proportion of older adults without known valvular heart disease (VHD) have asymptomatic VHD, with age the only parameter associated with significant VHD, according to a study published online June 26 in the European Heart Journal: Cardiovascular Imaging.

Vasiliki Tsampasian, M.D., from Norwich Medical School at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, and colleagues conducted a prospective cohort study between 2007 and 2016 to examine the prevalence and associated factors of asymptomatic VHD in individuals aged 60 years and older. Data were included for 4,237 participants.

The researchers found that VHD was diagnosed in 28.2 percent of patients. The most common types of VHD were regurgitation of the tricuspid, mitral, and aortic valves (13.8, 12.8, and 8.3 percent, respectively). The rate of prevalence of clinically significant VHD was 2.4 percent, with 2.2 and 0.2 percent moderate and severe, respectively. Mitral and aortic regurgitation were the most common. Age was the only parameter associated with significant VHD (odds ratio, 1.07 per one-year increment). To diagnose one clinically significant case of VHD, the number needed to scan was 42 and 15 for individuals aged 60 years and older and 75 years and older, respectively.

"These valuable data can lay the foundation for further epidemiological studies evaluating the burden of VHD in the community and the potential role of echocardiographic screening in the elderly population," the authors write.

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