Vancouver A type of medication known as angiotensin-receptor blockers could reduce risk of mortality in people with a heart disease called calcific aortic stenosis (AS) by 30 per cent over an eight-year period, Heart and Stroke Foundation researcher Dr. Philippe Pibarot told delegates at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress. The condition is currently managed with open heart surgery.
"Our discovery shifts how we think about AS by looking at a new pathway which both prevents and reverses calcification," says Dr. Pibarot, a professor at Laval University and Canada Research Chair in Valvular Heart Diseases, Qubec Heart & Lung Institute. "It broadens how we can approach therapies, opening up new avenues of research, and has tremendous potential to lead to a major discovery."
From a health economics point of view, drug treatment is also far less expensive than replacing a valve through surgery, which Dr. Pibarot says costs at least $30,000.
Every year, AS is responsible for 10,000 to 15,000 deaths in North America, and upwards of 80,000 heart surgeries. Now, this promising research suggests the first possible drug therapy to treat AS.
"AS is one of the most common types of heart disease, yet the only option to save lives has been open heart surgery. And valve replacement surgery is the second most frequent heart surgery after coronary artery bypass," says Dr. Pibarot. "We may be able to slow the progress of AS to the point that most people won't need surgery."
Picture a normal heart valve as soft and thin, like a slice of tomato, Dr. Pibarot says. Compare that to a valve that has hardened and narrowed more like a cauliflower. That's calcific AS, the most common type of AS, where deposits of calcium form in the valve, which prevents it from opening properly and creates a dangerous 'pressure overload' within the heart.
For years, he notes, the assumption was that AS was a degenerative disease related to aging a
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| Contact: Amanda Bates amanda@curvecommunications.com 604-306-0027 Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada Source:Eurekalert |