Hypertension in aortic stenosis: More questions than answers

Although hypertension and aortic stenosis are the most common cardiovascular diseases, the impact of hypertension on the natural history of aortic stenosis, the structure and function of the left ventricle, the assessment of valve defect severity and its progression are not fully understood. Hypertension not only can modify the exploratory findings of aortic stenosis, but may also interfere with the assessment of severity, and even have an impact on patients outcome. In the absence of specific cohort studies, the nature of the association between aortic stenosis and high blood pressure is not clear and the published results are often contradictory. Unknown is the true frequency of both conditions, the rules of diagnosis and the treatment itself.