[Natural development of old heart valve disease]

The authors report the natural history of 36 patients with end-stage valvular disease defined by the presence of a functional stage IV and/or a 0.60 and/or dilatation of the LA 90 mm and/or dilatation of the LV 70 mm and/or increase in the systolic PAP 80 mmHg and/or a decrease in the EF of 0.45. 11 patients are alive with a mean survival of 36.8 months (30.5%) and 25 have died after a mean interval of 7.8 months. The prognosis is very poor for aortic valvular disease (14 deaths out of 16 cases), but there were only 3 deaths out of 10 patients with isolated mitral valve disease.