NEW YORK CITY -- People with aortic stenosis (AS) were increasingly getting timelier diagnosis, though treatment delays persisted in a national care quality registry study.
U.S. patients flagged with moderate or severe AS, based on an initial echocardiogram, ended up getting all their confirmatory diagnostic assessments within 30 days in 61.4% of cases in 2024, up from 54.2% in 2023 (P=0.001), per the American Heart Association's Target: Aortic Stenosis registry.
Among those with a class I indication for aortic valve replacement (AVR), the goal of timely treatment was achieved by 84.7% in 2024, no significant change from 82.2% the year before. This meant that nearly one in six eligible individuals did not get AVR within 90 days, according to Brian Lindman, MD, MSc, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
The registry study, based on randomly selected patients from 58 participating American sites, was presented at the New York Valves annual meeting hosted by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation. Its manuscript was simultaneously published in Circulation.
"There were significant gaps in care that were identified through these registry metrics. Nonetheless, we also did see improvement, particularly with respect to the primary one of the co-primary measures of timely diagnosis and its components as we move forward to address additional gaps in care," Lindman concluded.
