Aortic valve disease. Optimising treatment by improving determination of valve and ventricular function at rest and during exercise.

Background: Aortic valve disease is the most common reason for valve surgery in northern Europe. Although the development of more ideal prosthetic valves is an ongoing challenge, attention is being shifted to the importance of patient related factors in general and to left ventricular (LV) function in particular, for better outcome of treatment. The main hypothesis of this work is, that by further development of non- invasive methods, combining new techniques in echocardiography and studies on heart function during exercise, improved selection of treatment, better timing of surgery and development of new treatment options in aortic valve disease can be achieved. Studies within this project: • Development of methods for investigation of left ventricular function in patients with aortic regurgitation by exploring new echocardiographic modalities for LV function during exercise. • Developing the reference method for LV ejection fraction determination by radionuclide ventriculography. • To improve the understanding of right ventricular function pre- and postoperatively in connection with aortic valve surgery. • To develop methods for analysis of mechanisms in aortic valve regurgitation to make reconstructive surgery a more reliable and tailored treatment option. • To study the LV function preoperatively and at different times postoperatively at rest and during exercise in patients with aortic regurgitation to elucidate the mechanisms for postoperative adaptation of LV-function and to evaluate the aerobic capacity and its determinants after surgery from chronic aortic regurgitation. • To evaluate the effects of implantation of aortic valve prostheses of small size in patients with severe aortic stenosis and narrow aortic root, on postoperative LV-function and hemodynamics at rest and during exercise. • To use the methods for valve and ventricular function in evaluation of new treatment options in aortic valve disease, eg. transfemoral/transapical aortic valve implantations.

• Staff:

Eva Nylander , MD, PhD		Principal Investigator		IMH/CMIV Linköping University
Éva Tamás , MD, PhD
Lena Helin , PhD student
Kristofer Hedman , Med student
Tom Ahrén , Civ ing
Eva Olsson , MD
Farkas Vanky , MD, PhD
Rolf Svedjeholm , MD, PhD
Henrik Hultkvist , MD, PhD stud

• Former Staff:

• Project Description:

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