A new option for heart valve replacement is under study at Emory University Hospital. Cardiologists at the Emory Heart & Vascular Center are conducting groundbreaking research to study a non-surgical treatment option for patients with severe aortic stenosis, a narrowing of the aortic valve opening that affects tens of thousands of people each year. It is most common among elderly patients over 70 years of age, but can surface earlier in life in those with rheumatic heart disease or congenital abnormalities of the valve. Patients often develop symptoms of chest pain, shortness of breath, fainting spells and heart failure.
Peter Block, MD
Emory cardiologists, led by Peter Block, MD, FACC, professor of medicine, Emory School of Medicine, are performing percutaneous aortic valve replacement as part of a clinical trial, comparing this procedure with traditional, open-heart surgery or medical therapy in high-risk patients with aortic stenosis. It provides a new way for doctors to treat patients who are too ill or frail to endure the traditional surgical approach. So far, 115 people have participated in the phase II clinical trial.
In this new procedure, doctors create a small incision in the groin or chest wall and then feed a wire mesh valve through a catheter and place it where the new valve is needed. The standard therapy, which has been used to treat aortic stenosis for more than 30 years, is to remove the diseased valve through open-heart surgery.
Block says the results seen so far in this clinical trial show great promise for this procedure. He says this is especially important since tens of thousands of Americans are diagnosed with failing valves each year and that number is expected to increase substantially in the coming years as baby boomers pass the age of 70.
