Objectives: The purpose of this study was to correlate the weights of operatively excised stenotic aortic valves to preoperative transvalvular peak systolic gradients and to calculated aortic valve areas.
Background: No previous publication has correlated the weights of stenotic aortic valves to the transvalvular gradients or to the calculated aortic valve areas.
Methods: We weighed operatively excised stenotic aortic valves in 324 adults who had undergone preoperative left-sided cardiac catheterization.
Results: As the weights of the operatively excised stenotic aortic valves increased (from <1 g to >6 g), the average transvalvular peak systolic pressure gradients progressively increased. For any valve weight, in general, the women had higher average transvalvular gradients (p </= 0.005) and lower average valve areas (p </= 0.008) than did the men. Correlation between aortic valve weight and transvalvular gradient improved further when gender was taken into account.
Conclusions: Preoperative transvalvular peak systolic pressure gradients across stenotic aortic valves correlate better with the weights of the operatively excised valves than do the calculated valve areas.