Study populations
For this retrospective cohort study, we extracted and analyzed the
medical data of 177 patients with past histories of SAVR at Ome
Municipal General Hospital, Tokyo, Japan, between April 2009 and May
2019. Among them, 140 patients (79.1%) underwent SAVR at our hospital,
and the remaining 37 (20.9%) presented to the outpatient clinic after
SAVR that was performed in the other hospital.
Thirty-seven patients with follow-up <1 year were excluded.
All patients underwent transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and coronary
angiography as a part of screening before SAVRs. We also excluded
patients with structural heart diseases except for primary aortic valve
diseases. The other structural heart diseases included a history of
coronary artery disease, myocarditis, infiltrative heart diseases,
including cardiac sarcoidosis and amyloidosis, congenital heart
diseases, and other cardiomyopathies, such as hypertrophic
cardiomyopathy (HCM) and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Subsequently, the
following patients were excluded: 29 with a history of ischemic heart
disease, including old myocardial infarction and treatment history of
percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary artery bypass
grafting (CABG); 1 patient with atrial septal defect (ASD); and 1
patient with ventricular septal defect (VSD). Finally, the data of 109
patients who had undergone SAVR without diagnosed structural heart
diseases other than primary aortic valve diseases were analyzed
retrospectively.