AT WHAT FLOW RATE DOES AORTIC VALVE GRADIENT BECOME SEVERELY ELEVATED? IMPLICATIONS FOR GUIDELINE RECOMMENDATIONS ON VALVE AREA CUTOFFS

Current guidelines state: Aortic stenosis (AS) is severe when valve area (AVA) is < 1.0 cm2 and mean aortic valve gradient (mAVG) exceeds 40 mmHg. We sought to determine AVA at which mAVG tends to exceed 40 mmHg in subjects with varied transvalvular flow rates. Our echocardiography database was