Editorial on Bellino et al., “Aortopathy and aortic valve surgery in patients with bicuspid aortic valve with and without raphe”

In this issue of the IJC, Bellino et al. report on the outcomes of a multicenter bicuspid aortopathy cohort stratified by the presence or absence of a visible raphe [1]. About 75% of bicuspid aortic valves (BAV) have a prominent fibrous ridge of tissue at the site of cusp fusion known as a raphe. In the international classification system for BAV, ‘2-sinus’ valves that do not have any raphe tissue at all are said to comprise only 5–7% of cases [2]. In other cases, the raphe may be small or difficult to visualize due to lack of calcification or partial cusp fusion [3].
Source: International Journal of Cardiology - Category: Cardiology Authors: Source Type: research