Valvular & structural heart disease
Novel Echocardiographic Staging Classification for Cardiac Damage in Chronic Aortic Regurgitation
Authors' conclusion
Cardiac damage is present in nearly 90% of patients with moderate or greater AR and is associated with increased mortality
Study context
- Population
- Adults with moderate or greater chronic aortic regurgitation (AR) on echocardiogram, January 2008–July 2024median age 72 years
- Participants
- 4,026 adults
- Exposure
- Cardiac damage stages 1–4 vs stage 0
- Outcome
- Association between cardiac damage stages and all-cause mortality under medical surveillance
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
All-cause mortality
Each group vs stage 0Adjusted hazard ratio (95% CI)
Stage 1
1.42(1.04–1.96)
Stage 2
1.58(1.21–2.06)
Stage 3
2.78(2.10–3.67)
Stage 4
5.34(3.67–7.76)
- Cardiac damage present
- 87%
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Predictive accuracy for mortality (concordance statistic) with cardiac damage staging added
- C-statistic without staging
- 0.73 (95% CI, 0.71-0.75)
- C-statistic with staging
- 0.76 (95% CI, 0.74-0.77)
Original publication
Novel Echocardiographic Staging Classification for Cardiac Damage in Chronic Aortic Regurgitation. Circ Cardiovasc Imaging. Published 5 December 2025. doi:10.
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it