Sign up for Table of Contents Alerts!
Email this page
Print this page
Article Addendum
Autophagy as Mechanism for Cell Death in Degenerative Aortic Valve Disease: An Underestimated Phenomenon in Cardiovascular Diseases
Wilhelm P. Mistiaen, Pamela Somers, Michiel W.M. Knaapen and Mark M. Kockx
volume 2 | issue 3
July/August/September 2006Pages: 221 - 223
We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:
Download PDF If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.
Once degenerative aortic valve disease becomes symptomatic, valve replacement is necessary for prognostic and symptomatic reasons. In elderly patients, symptoms of degenerative aortic valve can often be doubtful. Therefore, it is difficult but important to distinguish patients who need surgery from those who do not. Estimation of the rate of the progression of this disease can be helpful herein because one needs to bear in mind that aortic valve degeneration is an active process, which can influence the rate of progression. Recently, autophagy was discovered as a mechanism of cell death in different cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, aortic valve degeneration, heart failure and at regions around heart infarctions. Thus understanding autophagy in all its details can be helpful to contribute insights into the cell death machinery of cardiovascular diseases. This could open ways for inhibition of cell death in cardiovascular disease and possibly define targets for future drug design.
Addendum to:
Histological Evaluation of Autophagic Cell Death in Calcified Aortic Valve Stenosis
P. Somers, M. Knaapen, M. Kockx, H. Bortier and W. Mistiaen W
J Heart Valve Dis 2006;15:43-8
We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:
Download PDF If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.