Abstract 16869: Prevalence of Valvular Heart Disease in the Elderly as Observed in a Large-Scale Echocardiographic Database

Abstract

Introduction: In Japan, the aging population is increasing, leading to a rapid rise in elderly patients with heart failure. To determine the post-test probability of valvular heart diseases, it is crucial to understand the pre-test probability and likelihood ratio. Hypothesis: Therefore, we surveyed the prevalence of valvular diseases among elderly individuals in a large-scale echocardiographic database of echocardiology. Methods: We reviewed 4,023 patients (1,486 males and 2,537 females, 79.4±14.3 years) who underwent echocardiographic examinations at our hospital from October 2017 to September 2022. The prevalence of valvular heart diseases was calculated by dividing the number of patients with valvular diseases by the total number of patients surveyed. We analyzed the data by age, gender, and severity of valvular disease to determine the prevalence in each subgroup. Results: Among the 4,023 individuals included in the study, 2,652 elderly patients (65.9%) had valvular diseases: 808 cases of aortic stenosis (AS) (20.1%), 1,356 cases of aortic regurgitation (AR) (33.7%), 1,899 cases of mitral regurgitation (MR) (47.2%), and 52 cases of mitral stenosis (MS) (1.3%). A total of 981 individuals (24.4%) had moderate or severe valvular disease, including 225 patients of AS (5.6%), 178 patients of AR (4.4%), 560 patients of MR (13.9%), and 18 patients of MS (0.5%). In gender-specific analysis, women had a higher prevalence of valvular heart disease than men, with approximately 1.3 to 2.5 times higher incidence in average males. Conclusions: We investigated the prevalence of valvular heart disease in the elderly using a large-scale echocardiographic database and found that over 65% of elderly individuals had valvular heart disease. In particular, AS and MR had relatively high prevalence rates for moderate or severe valvular disease, highlighting the importance of screening through routine physical examinations and echocardiographic tests.