Are coronary artery disease risk factors associated with degenerative aortic stenosis?

Abstract

Purpose: Coronary artery disease (CAD) risk factors are thought to be associated with degenerative aortic stenosis (AS). The purpose of this study is to compare CAD risk factors in patients 65 years and older with AS undergoing transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) with those of patients without AS (controls). Methods: 559 consecutive patients over 65 years referred for TTE for evaluation of any cause were included in the study. Demographic data including age and gender, a history of hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia, diabetes mellitus, current tobacco use, ex-tobacco use, family history of CAD was collected. AS was documented according to the EAE/ASE recommendations. Data collected was analysed with SPSS version 18 using t-test and odds ratio analysis. Significant differences were defined as a probability value of p <0.05. Results: 158 patients were diagnosed with AS. The mean age for AS was 74.8 (standard deviation 6.4). T-testing showed that age was significantly related to the presence of AS with a p value of 0.017. No statistical significance was detected for male sex, hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia, DM, current tobacco users, current and ex-tobacco users, and a family history of CAD (Table 1). View this table: Risk factors in AS and controls Conclusions: Our study has shown that age is associated with degenerative AS. However there was no association between degenerative AS and the presence of other modifiable and non-modifiable CAD risk factors.