INTRODUCTION
BAV is the most common congenital anomaly of the heart with a prevalence
that ranges from 0.5% to 2%. (1-3) Its association with other
congenital cardiac anomalies is well established and associated
anomalies are often the cause of early disease diagnosis during
childhood.(4) But when BAV is isolated, it has minimal progression
during childhood (5) and usually presents later in life with either
valvulopathy or aortopathy. The valvulopathy associated with BAV can
present itself as insufficiency, stenosis or a mixed disease.(6, 7)
Severity of valvulopathy varies between mild and non-significant to
moderate or severe valve dysfunction.(3, 8) The associated aortopathy is
variable in terms of the size of the aorta and it’s a atomic location.
Patients with BAV might have normal sized aorta or aneurysm/ectasia of
the aortic root, ascending aorta, or both.(9, 10) The aim of this study
was to assess the reported prevalence of BAV in a large Echocardiography
(ECHO) database and to better understand the presentation of BAV in
different age groups, the risk factors for thoracic aortic aneurysms and
the surgical intervention stratified to each age group.