Detection of Calcium in the Aortic Valve by Non-invasive Imaging

The development and adaptation of previous and novel non-invasive image techniques are making possible a complete evaluation of the aortic valve (AV) as well as the study of the origin and progression of its disease from different points of view: molecular, anatomical, functional (Aikawa and Otto 2012). Calcium early detection and quantification plays a significant role in the study of calcified aortic valve disease (CAVD), as it has shown relation with the aortic valve disease development, grade of severity and progression. In patients with mild to moderate aortic stenosis (AS), moderate to severe aortic valve calcification has a significantly faster hemodynamic AS progression rate compared to patients with only mild or no aortic valve calcification (Rosenhek et al. 2000). Its presence is a predictor of worse clinical outcome, it is related to the severity of possible concomitant coronary atherosclerosis disease (CAD) (Otto et al. 1999); and finally it is a potential target to evaluate medical treatment efficacy (Rajamannan et al. 2011). These facts have been measured in a few studies in which different methods were employed to assess aortic calcification, often without a reference test to quantify the extent of aortic valve calcification (Rosenhek et al. 2000).