What medicine should I take for aortic calcification?

The aorta is a very important blood vessel in the human body. Once calcification occurs in this area, the consequences can be imagined. Aortic calcification is a congenital disease. There may be no conscious symptoms in early childhood, but as the age increases, symptoms such as palpitations, shortness of breath and angina pectoris after fatigue will appear, and the harmfulness will gradually become apparent. So, what medicine should be taken for aortic calcification? Let’s take a look at the treatment methods for aortic calcification.

Treatment measures: If congenital aortic valve malformation has no obvious clinical symptoms in early childhood, surgery can be performed when the child grows up. In cases of congenital aortic valve prolapse, an aortic valve suspension can be performed during repair of a high ventricular septal defect or a sinus of Valsalva aneurysm. For adults with mild to moderate aortic stenosis or regurgitation, surgery can also be postponed until clinical symptoms appear. However, if the patient requires mitral valve surgery due to concurrent severe mitral valve disease, simultaneous correction of aortic valve disease should be considered. Otherwise, after the mitral valve disease is corrected, the amount of blood discharged from the left ventricle into the aorta will increase, and the hemodynamic changes caused by the aortic valve disease will inevitably worsen, thereby overloading the left ventricle and causing left heart failure after surgery. Therefore, in patients with rheumatic heart disease who suffer from both mitral and aortic valve lesions, their surgical treatment plan should take into account the conditions of the two valve lesions. In cases of aortic stenosis and regurgitation, the most dangerous symptoms are angina pectoris and syncope. These two symptoms are manifestations of myocardial ischemia and cerebral ischemia. The patient may suffer cardiac arrest or ventricular fibrillation at any time and fall to the ground and die suddenly. Therefore, elective surgery should be performed as soon as possible in cases with a history of angina pectoris or (and) syncope. The aortic valve is under high pressure when closing. Even in the case of simple aortic stenosis, commissurotomy often causes obvious insufficiency. At the same time, since severe aortic stenosis often leads to thickening and calcification of the valve leaflets, commissurotomy or separation is difficult to achieve satisfactory therapeutic effects. Therefore, aortic valve disease often requires valve replacement surgery, which involves removing the diseased aortic valve and replacing it with an artificial valve. The artificial valve placed in the position of the aortic valve has a lower thromboembolism rate than mitral valve replacement due to the flushing of left ventricular ejection. However, if a mechanical valve is used for aortic valve replacement, lifelong anticoagulation therapy is still required after the operation, and those using a biological valve also need anticoagulation therapy for at least 3 months. Regardless of whether it is a mechanical valve or a biological valve, it is advisable to choose an artificial valve with a larger opening area and less resistance.

Surgical method: aortic valve suspension. The prolapsed aortic valve leaflet is often the right coronary valve leaflet or the non-coronary valve leaflet above the defect. After establishing extracorporeal circulation, an oblique transverse incision is made on the anterior wall of the ascending aorta, and the lower end of the incision extends to the non-coronary valve sinus, so that the aortic valve can be well exposed. The normal valve sinus is deep, and there are no abnormalities in the leaflet edges and commissural joints. The prolapsed leaflet edges are elongated, the valve sinus becomes shallow, and it prolapses toward the ventricle. At the commissural joint, the prolapsed valve edge becomes significantly thinner. When suspended, use non-destructive forceps to clamp one end of the prolapsed leaflet, pull it tight towards the commissure, estimate the degree of prolapse and the range of the suspension overlapping suture, and then use a double-headed non-destructive needle and thread with a polyester or tetrafluoroethylene gasket to pass through the overlapping valve edges and leaflets, pass through the other gasket outside the ascending aorta wall, and ligate it. The key points of suspension are: ① The gasket must be placed vertically so that the entire gasket presses on the valve leaflet to prevent the valve leaflet from tearing; ② The prolapsed valve leaflet must be about 1mm higher than the adjacent normal valve leaflet at the junction, which can deepen the valve sinus and well align the valve; ③ When suspending, the edge of the prolapsed valve must be slightly tightened. A slight overcorrection can enable the valve to better withstand the aortic diastolic pressure. This suspension method is more accurate and effective than the method of using a thin thread to pull the Morgagni nodes in the center of the edges of the three leaflets to determine the degree of prolapse and the range of suspension; ④ If the edges at both ends of the leaflets have obvious degenerative changes, thinning and loosening, suspension should be performed with gaskets at both ends of the leaflets.