Turk Kardiyol Dern Ars. 2013; 41(1): 1-10 | DOI: 10.5543/tkda.2013.71430

The Turkish registry of heart valve disease

Recep Demirbağ¹, Leyla Elif Sade², Mustafa Aydın³, Abdi Bozkurt⁴, Esmeray Acartürk^4
1Department of Cardiology, Harran University Faculty of Medicine, Şanlıurfa, Turkey
²Department of Cardiology, Başkent University Ankara Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
³Department of Cardiology, Zonguldak Karaelmas University Faculty of Medicine, Zonguldak
⁴Department of Cardiology, Cukurova University Faculty of Medicine, Adana

OBJECTIVES
Valvular heart diseases (VHD) occur frequently in Turkey. However, epidemiological studies of VHD have not been completed until now. The aim of this study is to identify the VHD type, clinical, laboratory characteristics, and treatment methods among VHD patients in Turkey.
STUDY DESIGN
The study was conducted prospectively between June 2009 and June 2011 at 42 centers, and included patients with native VHDs, infective endocarditis, and/or previous valve interventions.
RESULTS
All medical data from 1300 patients were recorded. Mean age was 57±18 years and the female/male ratio was 1.5. VHD was native in 84% of patients, 15% had previous interventions, and 1% had infective endocarditis. Among the native VHDs, mitral regurgitation was the most frequent lesion (43%), followed by multiple VHDs (32%). Degenerative etiology (86%) was more frequent in aortic VHD, and rheumatic origin was the main cause in all VHDs. While the prevalence of aortic stenosis increased with age, mitral stenosis decreased with patient age. The most frequent symptom was shortness of breath (73%). Clinical and echocardiographic examinations (54%) were mostly used as diagnostic techniques for determining treatment course. Percutaneous mitral balloon valvuloplasty (PMBV) was performed in 76% of the patients with mitral stenosis and mechanical prosthetic valve replacement was performed in 74% of the patients with other lesions.
CONCLUSION
This study showed that the main cause of VHD is rheumatic fever. Mitral regurgitation and multiple valvular lesions are the most frequent VHDs in Turkey. PMBV and mechanical prosthetic valve replacement are the preferred treatment methods for VHD.

Keywords: Age distribution, balloon valvuloplasty, echocardiography, transesophageal, endocarditis, heart valve diseases/etiology/ surgery, rheumatic fever/epidemiology, Turkey/epidemiology.

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