Aortic stenosis

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Aortic stenosis

Heart, front view

Heart, section through the middle

Heart valves

Aortic valve stenosis

• Fainting , weakness , or dizziness with activity
• Breathlessness with activity
• Sensation of feeling the heart beat (palpitations)
• Chest pain , angina-type
  • Under the chest bone, may move to other areas 
  • crushing, squeezing, pressure, tightness
  • Pain increases with exercise, relieved with rest

Note: Aortic stenosis may show no symptoms until late in the course of the disease.

The health care provider will be able to feel a vibration or movement when placing the hand over the heart. A heart murmur, click, or other abnormal sound is almost always heard through a stethoscope. There may be a faint pulse or changes in the quality of the pulse in the neck. A change in neck pulse is called pulsus parvus et tardus.

Blood pressure may be low.

The following tests may be performedn:

• Left cardiac catheterization
• Echocardiogram
• Doppler ultrasonography
• Transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE)
• Chest x-ray
• ECG

This disease may also alter the results of the following:

• Chest MRI
• Aortic angiography

Review Date: 05/30/2006
Reviewed By: Alan Berger, MD, Assistant Professor, Divisions of Cardiology and Epidemiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.