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What is a more prevalent disease aside from aortic stenosis that increase cardiac after-load?
Hypertension. Before onset of cardiac failure, hypertensive patients have normal or mild cardiac enlargement. Both the ascending and the descending aorta are equally enlarged as compared to aortic stenosis where only the ascending aorta is affected.
How is aortic stenosis classified?
By anatomic region and aetiology, congenital versus acquired. The three anatomical regions are: valvular, supravalvular, subvalvular
Which CT features of aortic stenosis have correlation with severity of aortic stenosis, valvular calcifications or dilatation of the ascending aorta?
Valvular calcification correlate with severity of aortic stenosis whereas degree of dilatation of ascending aorta does not correlate with severity of disease.[1-3]
The ascending aorta (yellow dotted line) leading into the arch is dilated, whereas the distal arch and descending aorta (red dotted line) are normal in size. The left heart border (blue dotted line) can be traced upwards along the mediastinum to blend with the aortic arch, explaining why the medial (left) border of the ascending aorta is not visible on x-rays.
Calcified aortic valve (green arrows) noted on CT.