Aortic stenosis (AS) is most prevalent among white and Hispanic, according to new findings published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Led by cardiologist Matthew J. Czarny, MD, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, researchers tracked data from a diverse U.S. cohort of more than 3,000 patients between the ages of 45 and 85. Patients had no history of cardiovascular disease and underwent transthoracic echocardiography at one of six facilities from 2000 to 2002. A team of two clinical cardiologists determined if each patient had AS based on American Society of Echocardiography guidelines.
While 39.8% of participants were white, 25.1% were Black, 21.7% were Hispanic and 13.4% were Chinese. The median age was 73 years old, and 53% were women.
The authors found that 77 patients showed signs of AS. Twenty-nine of those patients had mild AS, and 48 had moderate or greater AS. A total of 22 patients underwent aortic valve replacement (AVR).
AS was most prevalent in Hispanic (3.7%) and white (3.5) participants. The raters were much lower among Black (1.8%) and Chinese (0.3%) participants. No associations between race/ethnicity and AS severity were observed.
The team did note that excluding patients with a history of clinical cardiovascular disease likely impacted the results, leading to lower rates of AS prevalence than might otherwise be seen.
“Additional studies are needed to validate our findings in other populations, assess for pathophysiological mechanisms underpinning these differences, and determine if the observed racial/ethnic differences in AS prevalence may partially account for previously observed differential rates of surgical or transcatheter AVR,” Czarny and colleagues concluded.
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Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.