Biomarkers in Aortic Stenosis - B.A.S.S.

Inclusion Criteria: * patients with mild, moderate, or severe aortic stenosis or aortic or mitral prosthesis. Patients with aortic or mitral regurgitation. patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Patients with dysfunctional heart valve replacement or repair. Patients with severe tricuspid regurgitation associated with pacemaker or defibrillator lead. Ten normal control patients who will not be required to have echocardiography * referred for a clinically indicated echocardiogram; the echo must be of good quality and specifically have patient height, weight, left ventricular outflow tract diameter, subaortic velocity profile by Doppler, and aortic transvalvular continuous wave Doppler velocity profile. For mitral regurgitation and aortic regurgitation the data must be adequate to allow calculation of regurgitant volume. For hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a recording of left ventricular outflow tract peak velocity must be recorded * 21 years or older * patients with aortic stenosis, defined as peak aortic velocity greater than 2.5 m/sec with evidence of aortic valve thickening, or an aortic or mitral valve prosthesis * able to provide written informed consent Exclusion Criteria: * Missing or inadequate echocardiographic data * inability to give informed consent * inability to provide a research blood sample * hemoglobin less than 8 * severe valvular regurgitation * stenosis of the mitral valve