Multimodality imaging in aortic stenosis: new diagnostic and therapeutic frontiers

The advent of transcatheter aortic valve implantation has revolutionized the treatment of calcific aortic valve stenosis. Elderly patients who were previously considered inoperable have currently an efficacious and safe therapy that provides better survival. In addition, current practice guidelines tend to recommend earlier intervention to avoid the irreversible consequences of long-lasting pressure overload caused by the stenotic aortic valve. Appropriate timing of the intervention relies significantly on imaging techniques that provide information on the severity of the aortic stenosis as well as on the hemodynamic consequences and cardiac remodeling. While left ventricular ejection fraction remains one of the main functional parameters for risk stratification in patients with severe aortic stenosis, advances in imaging techniques have provided new structural and functional parameters that allow the identification of patients who will benefit from intervention before the occurrence of symptoms or irreversible cardiac damage. Furthermore, ongoing research aiming to identify the medical therapies that can effectively halt the progression of aortic stenosis relies heavily on imaging endpoints, and new imaging techniques that characterize the metabolic activity of calcific aortic stenosis have been proposed to monitor the effects of these therapies. The present review provides an up-to-date overview of the imaging advances that characterizes the pathophysiology and that have changed the management paradigm of aortic stenosis.