Assessment of Unicuspid Aortic Valve Stenosis Using Multimodality Imaging, X-ray Radiography and Raman Analysis

: Unicuspid aortic valve (UAV) is an extremely rare form of congenital cardiac malformation, leading to aortic stenosis (AS), aortic regurgitation (AR), or both. We report the case of a 55-year-old man with unicommissural UAV associated with severe AS and mild AR using different multimodality imaging approaches. The excised UAV isolated after aortic valve replacement exhibited an eccentric "teardrop" opening with a slit-shaped unicommissural structure. Raman spectroscopic results indicated that 3 unevenly distributed components were deposited on the surface of the UAV, in which calcium hydroxyapatite and type-B carbonate apatite were the predominate components deposited on the surface, leading to severe AS formation.