The European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging and the American Society of Echocardiography released a joint document on how best to use echocardiography to assess the growing number of patients with aortic stenosis, a narrowing of the aortic valve.
The guidance, "Recommendations on the Echocardiographic Assessment of Aortic Valve Stenosis: A Focused Update from the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) and the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE)," will appear in the April issue of the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography.
The previous valve stenosis document was published in 2009, and since that time, there have been a number of studies published on aortic stenosis as well as technical improvements in ultrasound equipment. The groups said they felt it was essential to integrate this new information into clinical practice, especially in light of treatment options such as transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in the past several years.
The new document provides a classification scheme for aortic stenosis that focuses on gradient and stroke volume flow in an integrated, stepwise algorithm. It also outlines in detail both basic and advanced echocardiographic measures of severity, incorporating technical aspects and new research about how to evaluate the subgroup of patients with low-flow aortic stenosis, the groups said.
In conjunction with the publication of the guideline document, ASE writing group co-chair Dr. Judy Hung will conduct a live webinar, including a question and answer section, on June 13 at 4 p.m. ET. The webinar will be available for free to all ASE members and open to all other clinicians for $25.
