In a new study, researchers found that minerals causing aortic heart valve blockage in men and women are different.
This is a discovery that could change how heart disease is diagnosed and treated.
The research was conducted by a team from McGill University and elsewhere.
The team used the Canadian Light Source (CLS) at the University of Saskatchewan,, and her team analyzed damaged heart valves from patients who had undergone transplants.
They found considerable differences in the mineral deposits found in aortic valves of men and women who suffer from stenosis, a life-threatening heart condition caused by a narrowing of the aortic valve opening.
Mineral composition analysis performed at the Soft X-Ray Mischaracterization Beamline, which is housed within the CLS, also found that a type of mineral deposit was found almost exclusively in samples from female patients.
Heart disease remains the global leading cause of death in both men and women.
With 280,000 heart valves being replaced every year in Canada due to stenosis, the new work demonstrates the need to develop different diagnostic and therapeutic approaches when treating aortic stenosis in men or women.
In order to make that happen, the team will return to the CLS to further examine this cardiovascular phenomenon and understand the precise composition of the mineral deposits they found in women.
The team says understanding what the minerals are could definitely help to develop a cure.
It’s possible that there could be easier ways to target these minerals and dissolve them for women.
One author of the study is Marta Cerruti, an Associate Professor in McGill’s Department of Materials Engineering.
The study is published in Acta Biomaterialia.
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