Materials and Methods
Study Population
From January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2016, 241 patients received mitral
valve repair/replacement(except for simultaneous aortic valve
surgery)in Zhujiang Hospital of Southern Medical University. We
classified all valvular lesions into mild, moderate and severe strictly
according to the guidelines. Since the purpose of this study was to
investigate the long-term effects of mitral valve surgery on the aortic
valve, we also excluded patients who died within 30 days of
surgery (n=6),
patients with significant progression
of AVD within 30 days after surgery (n=7, The progression of these
patients may be due to the direct factors of surgery) and patients who
were followed for less than 2 years (n=84). Finally,
144 eligible patients were selected
for the study. A flow diagram of included and excluded patients is
provided in the Figure 1. Demographic, clinical, and perioperative data
of the patients were collected. Patients were examined by transthoracic
echocardiography before surgery, within 2 weeks after surgery, 1 month,
2 months, and 6 months and then yearly for at least 2 years after
discharge (the average follow-up time was 1554.72±759.03 days).
According to the results of follow-up echocardiography of the aortic
valve, patients were divided into a progression group and a
non-progression group. Those who meet the following conditions were
defined as the progression group (n=25, 17.36%): 1. The follow-up of no
or mild AVD progressed to moderate or severe aortic valve disease; 2.
The follow-up of moderate AVD progressed to severe. The non-progression
group(n=119, 82.64%) was defined as: until the last follow-up
echocardiography, there was no newly identified moderate AVD or no
progression of AVD which was originally mild to moderate. The data
collection ended in December 2019.