While many people don’t have noticeable symptoms, in India, one in 40 people aged 75 and older have severe, symptomatic aortic stenosis
Abnormalities of the heart’s valves and chambers, known as structural heart conditions, affect millions of lives around the world. But life-changing health technologies are enabling structural heart solutions never before imagined, pushing past the boundaries of what’s possible.
Structural heart conditions can affect adults and even newborns. A common condition seen among older adults is aortic stenosis. Our heart has four valves (aortic, pulmonary, tricuspid, and mitral) that keep blood moving in the correct direction from one chamber to another and to the rest of the body. When any of these valves don’t function properly, blood flow is disrupted, which can cause long-term damage. Aortic stenosis is a condition where blood flow through the aortic heart valve to the rest of the body is restricted. This condition can cause heart failure and, in certain cases, sudden cardiac death.
While many people don’t have noticeable symptoms, in India, one in 40 people aged 75 and older have severe, symptomatic aortic stenosis. These are typically fatigue, shortness of breath, or chest pain. A doctor listening to their heart through a stethoscope may hear a sound known as a heart murmur, which could be a sign that stenosis is inhibiting adequate blood flow. The earlier standard of care was open-heart surgery, which has been widely available since the 1960s. However, it is invasive and generally entails opening the chest and using a heart-lung machine to repair or replace the valve. However, for older patients, open-heart surgery is considered a high-risk procedure due to the potential complications stemming from age, frailty, or having multiple other diseases or conditions.
That’s where TAVI or TAVR comes in. Transcatheter aortic valve implantation or replacement is a revolutionary catheter treatment that is minimally invasive. For people with severe narrowing of the aortic valve, a thin, flexible catheter, carrying the replacement valve, is normally inserted through a patient’s groin or thigh to reach the heart. Technological advancements in the TAVI system have improved its deliverability and helped in reducing or preventing the risk of blood leakage around valve implants. This non-surgical procedure has thus broadened treatment options for patients with severe aortic stenosis. The far less invasive TAVI procedure means patients spend fewer days in the hospital and are able to return to their normal lives far more quickly.
For us, our strongest commitment is to ensure that physicians have access to a robust set of solutions to treat structural heart disease through life-changing technology. With structural heart therapies currently in development to provide a transcatheter, minimally invasive treatment offering for various heart valve issues and closure of life-threatening openings and defects of the heart, we’re on a quest to find new and improved structural heart solutions to help people live their best possible lives.
Is there a foreseeable end to the evolution of heart technology? Will we ever reach a point where the human mind can no longer conceive of a way to extend or meaningfully improve a life? If the innovations of the recent past are any indicator, the answer is probably no. Bioprosthetics, pea-sized pediatric devices, and alternatives to open-heart surgery are likely only the beginning. For us, no structural heart impediment is too big, or too small, to solve.
This article is authored by Santosh Prabhu, Divisional VP, Global Product Development, Abbott- Structural Heart.
