Aortic aneurysm (AA) rapture is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Unfortunately, the diagnosis of AA is often verified after the onset of complications, in most cases after aortic rupture. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of ascending aortic aneurysm (AscAA) and aortic dilatation (AD) in patients with cardiovascular diseases undergoing echocardiography, and to identify the main risk factors depending on the morphology of the aortic valve. We processed 84,851 echocardiographic (ECHO) records of 13,050 patients with aortic dilatation (AD) in the Almazov National Medical Research Centre from 2010 to 2018, using machine learning methodologies. Despite a high prevalence of AD, the main reason for the performed ECHO was coronary artery disease (CAD) and hypertension (HP) in 33.5% and 14.2% of the patient groups, respectively. The prevalence of ascending AD (>40 mm) was 15.4% (13,050 patients; 78.3% (10,212 patients) in men and 21.7% (2838 patients) in women). Only 1.6% (n = 212) of the 13,050 patients with AD knew about AD before undergoing ECHO in our center. Among all the patients who underwent ECHO, we identified 1544 (1.8%) with bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) and 635 with BAV had AD (only 4.8% of all AD patients). According to the results of the random forest feature importance analysis, we identified the eight main factors of AD: age, male sex, vmax aortic valve (AV), aortic stenosis (AS), blood pressure, aortic regurgitation (AR), diabetes mellitus, and heart failure (HF). The known factors of AD-like HP, CAD, hyperlipidemia, BAV, and obesity, were also AD risk factors, but were not as important. Our study showed a high frequency of AscAA and dilation. Standard risk factors of AscAA such as HP, hyperlipidemia, or obesity are significantly more common in patients with AD, but the main factors in the formation of AD are age, male sex, vmax AV, blood pressure, AS, AR, HF, and diabetes mellitus. In males with BAV, AD incidence did not differ significantly, but the presence of congenital heart disease was one of the 12 main risk factors for the formation of AD and association with more significant aortic dilatation in AscAA groups.

Background/Introduction Women with mechanical prosthetic heart valves are at greatest risk of developing complications.The main reason is that mechanical prosthetic heart valves require lifelong anticoagulation to reduce the high risk of associated thrombotic and hemorrhagic complications. Purpose The main goal of this study was to estimated risk factors and frequency of thrombotic and hemorrhagic complications during pregnancy, delivery and the postpartum period in women with prosthetic heart valves Methods According to retrospective cohort analyses in this study were included 70 patients with prosthetic heart valves who delivered in a specialized perinatal center from October 2010 to February 2020. All the patients were divided into two groups depending on prosthesis type: mechanical prostheses (44 deliveries in 44 patients), biological prostheses (22 deliveries in 19 patients). All patients were performed ECHO (Vivid 7, GE, USA). The average age were 30.7±5.2 years. The N-terminal brain natriuretic propeptide (NT-proBNP) concentration was determined by the quantitative electrochemiluminescence method using a Cobas E 411 analyzer (Roche, Switzerland). The activity of the anti –Xa factor was measured by chromogenic assays. Results In 9 (21.4%) pregnants with a mechanical valve prosthesis (MVP), prosthetic thrombosis was recorded until 2016. In 1 patient with mechanical valve prosthesis (2%) during pregnancy was complicated by an acute cerebral circulation disorder. Since 2016 there were monitored the activity of the anti –Xa factor. In 7 patients on the background of a change in anticoagulant therapy, pregnancy stopped in the early stages. Before pregnancy, 31.4% of the patients didn't have heart failure clinical manifestations, but in 12 (17.1%) patients during pregnancy had increase in NYHA Class maximum to NYHA Class III. The average NT-proBNP concentration was 912.3±1586.6 pg / ml. The frequency of the cesarean section in both groups was high: in patients with mechanical valve prosthesis in 78.5% and in the group of patients with biological valve prostheses in 68.1% of cases. There were not registered any new cases of prosthetic thrombosis after delivery, however, 9 patients had hemorrhagic complications in the early postpartum period, which required relaparotomy and blood transfusions. Regardless of frequent complications during pregnancy and in the postpartum period, no fatal outcomes have been reported. Conclusion The absence of mortality over the 9-years old observation and delivery in patients with valvular prostheses demonstrates the feasibility of monitoring and delivery of this category of patients in a specialized multidisciplinary medical center with experience in managing patients during pregnancy with valvular prostheses on anticoagulant therapy. FUNDunding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None.