ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the incidence of aortic valve calcification,and the correlation between valve function and commonly encountered disease in the aged patients.Methods Totally 996 patients who underwent ultrasonic cardiography (UCG) in our hospital were included.They were divide into elderly group and non elderly group,and the elderly group was divided into calcification subgroup and non calcification subgroup.The calcification,stenosis and regurgitation of aortic valve were detected by UCG,and risk factors of calcification were evaluated by Logistic regression analysis.Results The incidence of calcification was higher in elderly group than in non elderly group [71.8％ (526/733) vs.14.6％ (34/233),x2＝237.10,P＜0.01].In elderly group,the incidence of aortic valve stenosis was 2.1％ (11/526) in calcification subgroup and 1.9％ (4/207) in non calcification subgroup (x2＝0.81,P＞0.05).In elderly group,the incidence of aortic valve regurgitation was 63.3％ (333/526) in calcification subgroup and 19.3％ (40/207) in non calcification subgroup (x2＝116.10,P＜0.01).The hazard ratio of aortic valve calcification in different diseases were as follows:hypertension (OR＝2.06,95％CI:1.400-3.031),coronary heart disease (OR＝3.46,95％CI:2.217-5.384),diabetes mellitus (OR ＝ 2.66,95％CI:1.652-4.278),renal dysfunction (OR＝ 2.34,95％ CI:1.415-3.869),osteoporosis (OR＝ 2.33,95％CI:1.119-4.838).Conclusions The incidence of calcification,mainly causing aortic valve regurgitation,is high in elderly patients.Patients with hypertension,coronary heart disease,diabetes mellitus,renal dysfunction and osteoporosis are prone to the development of aortic valve calcification.