Do you often experience breathlessness or chest pain? Are you ever short of breath? If you are over 65, it could be a sign of a heart valve disease such as aortic stenosis.

Aortic stenosis is one of the most common and severe heart valve diseases, affecting tens of thousands of Australians, including one in eight Australians over 75 years¹.

Sadly, aortic stenosis is not preventable and often goes undetected and untreated. It varies in severity and is defined by mild, moderate, and severe aortic stenosis. In the mild and moderate stages of aortic stenosis, the decrease in blood flow is usually not significant enough to cause outward symptoms.

However, the disease can be picked up during a routine heart check. Without timely diagnosis and treatment, your chance of survival at two years is 50%². Five-year survival rates are also considerably worse than several metastatic cancers such as colorectal, breast, lung and prostate cancer^3,4.

Your heart works consistently around the clock to pump blood throughout your body. Our heart has four chambers and four valves that open and close to control the blood flow in and out of your heart.

The valves in your heart operate like one-way gates. They open to allow blood to flow through your heart and out to your body. They close to stop blood from flowing back into the heart after it has been expelled. The valves permit blood to flow in only one direction, or pathway, through your heart. 

Aortic stenosis occurs when your heart valves responsible for allowing blood to flow through the body’s main artery, the aorta, around the body narrow due to a calcium build-up. The calcium build-up in the heart restricts blood from flowing around the body as it normally would.⁵

Two-thirds of patients with severe aortic stenosis may experience the symptoms listed below. However, one-third of patients do not experience any symptoms.

• Chest pain or tightness
• Shortness of breath
• Palpitations
• Feeling faint or fainting
• Fatigue
• Reduced physical activity or not completing usual daily activities

The first step in identifying aortic stenosis is for your general practitioner to listen to your heart with a stethoscope. If you experience some symptoms, ask your doctor to listen to your heart with a stethoscope at your next appointment. A simple checkup could save your life before you realise anything is wrong.

For more information on aortic stenosis, including a guide on what to discuss with your doctor, visit newheartvalve.com

For further reading:

1. Nkomo, V, J Gardin, T Skelton, J Gottdiener, C Scott, M Enriquez-Sarano. 2006. Burden of Valvular Heart Diseases: A population-based study. Lancet 368(9540):1005-11
2. Otto CM. Timing of aortic valve surgery. Heart 2000;84:211-8. 
3. Watanabe Y, Kozuma K, Hioki H, et al. Comparison of Results of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation in Patients With Versus Without Active Cancer. Am J Cardiol. 2016;118(4):572-577. 
4. National Cancer Institute. Cancer statistics based on data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program SEER 19 2009-2015. Volume 2019. Available at: https://seer.cancer.gov 
5. Carabello BA. Introduction to aortic stenosis. Circ Res 2013;113:179–85

Information on this material includes educational information regarding certain conditions and potential therapies or treatment options. Other therapies or treatment options may be available and you should discuss any educational information you access online with your healthcare professional. Appropriate treatment for individuals is a matter for healthcare professionals to decide in consultation with each individual. © 2022 Edwards Lifesciences Corporation. All Rights Reserved. ANZ-2022-298