Aortic Valve Disease

Aortic valve disorders are among the most common valvular heart conditions. Aortic regurgitation may be acute or chronic and each condition cause very different hemodynamic findings depending on the severity of regurgitation and the degree of compensation. The more commonly occurring condition of aortic stenosis is often evaluated in the cardiac catheterization laboratory. Hemodynamic evaluation provides the clinician with valuable information regarding the severity of aortic stenosis but must be done carefully to avoid error in interpretation. Finally, hemodynamic assessment is an important tool for evaluating the results of trans-catheter aortic valve replacement.