A "Waiting Is Not Winning" Story
One patient's deeply personal experience with heart valve failure
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IF YOU HAVE HEART VALVE FAILURE, THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW.
Waiting is not winning
You should know the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association recommend that patients receive treatment as soon as they are diagnosed with heart valve failure and start to experience symptoms. Once symptoms start, people with heart valve failure who don’t replace their failing aortic valve put their
All patients diagnosed with heart valve failure should ask for
Additional types of patients who should ask for a TAVR
Bicuspid aortic valve patients who are experiencing symptoms. Open heart surgery is sometimes the best option, but it's not always the only option.
Patients at high risk for surgery and who need another valve procedure (valve-in-valve).
ONCE SYMPTOMS START3,4
The longer you wait, the deadlier heart valve failure gets. Ask your doctor if it’s time for TAVR (transcatheter aortic valve replacement).3
HEART VALVE FAILURE DOESN’T DISCRIMINATE5-8
Heart valve failure can happen to anyone regardless of age, gender, or zip code, and these factors can determine who lives or dies from it. But it shouldn’t be this way. It’s clearly affecting people who are medically underserved:
Older adults are
undertreated9
Black Americans may
be at greater risk for
early-onset heart
valve disease5,10
Women receive over 20%
fewer TAVRs vs men
(a gap that continues to grow)7,11
Black and Hispanic
Americans receive fewer
treatments for failing
heart valves5,6,12
When it comes to
heart valve disease,
women are often diagnosed
later than men7
Women have even
better outcomes after
TAVR than men13
While heart valve failure can happen to anyone, it is treatable. If you have heart valve failure, ask to be referred to a Heart Valve Team right away.5-8
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References:
1.Otto CM, Nishimura RA, Bonow RO, et al. 2020 ACC/AHA guideline for the management of patients with valvular heart disease: a report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Joint Committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines. Circulation. 2021;143(5):e72-e227.
2.Landes U, Webb JG, De Backer O, et al. Repeat transcatheter aortic valve replacement for transcatheter prosthesis dysfunction. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2020;75(16):1882-1893.
3.Otto CM. Timing of aortic valve surgery. Heart. 2000;84(2):211-218.
4.Malaisrie SC, McDonald E, Kruse J, et al. Mortality while waiting for aortic valve replacement. Ann Thorac Surg. 2014;98(5):1564-1571.
5.Ahmed Y, van Bakel PAJ, Hou H, et al. Racial and ethnic disparities in diagnosis, management and outcomes of aortic stenosis in the Medicare population. PLoS One. 2023;18(4):e0281811.
6.Rodriguez BC, Acharya P, Salazar-Fields C, Horne A. Comparison of frequency of referral to cardiothoracic surgery for aortic valve disease in Blacks, Hispanics, and Whites. Am J Cardiol. 2017;120(3):450-455.
7.Tribouilloy C, Bohbot Y, Rusinaru D, et al. Excess mortality and undertreatment of women with severe aortic stenosis. J Am Heart Assoc. 2021;10(1):e018816.
8.Crousillat DR, Amponsah DK, Camacho A, et al. Racial and ethnic differences in the clinical diagnosis of aortic stenosis. J Am Heart Assoc. 2022;11(24):e028131.
9.Owens DS, Bartz TM, Buzkova P, et al. Cumulative burden of clinically significant aortic stenosis in community-dwelling older adults. Heart. 2021;107(18):1493-1502.
10.Czarny MJ, Hasan RK, Post WS, Chacko M, Schena S, Resar JR. Inequities in aortic stenosis and aortic valve replacement between Black/African American, White, and Hispanic residents of Maryland. J Am Heart Assoc. 2021;10(14):e017487.
11.Carroll JD, Mack MJ, Vemulapalli S, et al. STS-ACC TVT registry of transcatheter aortic valve replacement. Ann Thorac Surg. 2020;111(2):701-722.
12.Elbadawi A, Naqvi SY, Elgendy IY, et al. Ethnic and gender disparities in the uptake of transcatheter aortic valve replacement in the United States. Cardiol Ther. 2019;8(2):151-155.
13.Mahowald MK, Esmail K, Ezzeddine FM, Choi C, Mieszczanska H, Velarde G. Sex disparities in cardiovascular disease. Methodist Debakey Cardiovasc J. 2024;20(2):107-119.
Patients and/or clinicians quoted on this website have received compensation from Edwards Lifesciences.