Caseload management and outcome of patients with aortic stenosis in primary/secondary versus tertiary care settings-design of the IMPULSE enhanced registry.

Background: Severe aortic stenosis (AS) is one of the most common and most serious valve diseases. Without timely intervention with surgical aortic valve replacement or transcatheter aortic valve replacement, patients have an estimated survival of 2-3 years. Guidelines for the treatment of AS have been developed, but studies suggest that as many as 42% of patients with AS are not treated according to these recommendations.

Symptoms, disease severity and treatment of adults with a new diagnosis of severe aortic stenosis.

Objective: Contemporary data on patients with previously undiagnosed severe aortic stenosis (AS) are scarce. We aimed to address this gap by gathering data from consecutive patients diagnosed with severe AS on echocardiography.

Methods: This was a prospective, multicentre, multinational, registry in 23 tertiary care hospitals across 9 European countries.

Quality of care assessment and improvement in aortic stenosis - rationale and design of a multicentre registry (IMPULSE).

Background: Severe aortic stenosis (AS) is a common, serious valve disease in which no effective medical therapy is available and, if not treated by intervention, has a 5-year survival of only 40-60%. Despite the availability of guidelines supporting the effective use of surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) or transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) to treat the majority of these patients, adherence to these guidelines in clinical practice is still unsatisfactory. Several recent studies have emphasised the necessity for improved communication between multidisciplinary teams, with the aim to ensure that severe AS patients receive appropriate treatment.