Aortic stenosis in acute cardiovascular care: Incidence, clinical trajectories and outcomes in emergency and intensive care settings with development of a prognostic screening model

• Applicant: Dr. Florian Genske
• Subject Area: Cardiology, Angiology
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 584137899

Until today there are no clinical predictors of aortic stenosis (AS). Through a combination of clinical and laboratory findings, a previously unknown AS can be reliably identified in patients presenting to primary care with unspecific cardiopulmonary symptoms. For patients with acute decompensated AS, distinct clinical and hemodynamic profiles are associated with differential short- and long-term prognosis and with a response to specific acute treatment strategies. The project’s aims are the following: • to describe the epidemiology of AS in a real-world population of individuals seeking acute medical care with cardiopulmonary symptoms or complains, utilizing data from Sweden’s largest hospital and a large national database (SWENTRY registry), • to establish a standardised diagnostic workup for patients in this group with focus on their medical status, medical examinations, echocardiographic findings, and ECG-findings, • to identify clinical patterns associated with AS, and predictors of AS from routine clinical findings, • thereby developing a screening tool for AS in patients seeking acute medical care due to unspecific cardiopulmonary symptoms, and • to identify indicators of disease progression in asymptomatic patients or patients with non-severe AS to be used as a warning signal and to enable timely treatment. The focus will be on patients presenting to the emergency department of the Södersjukhuset hospital in Stockholm, Sweden. Additional data will be obtained from other hospitals of the greater Stockholm area. Furthermore, an analysis of the SWENTRY registry (SWEdish transcatheter cardiac intervention registry) is planned. As a continuation of the above describe project, we plan an analysis of patients presenting to primary care in cardiogenic shock due to acute decompensated aortic stenosis. Again, an analysis of patients from the Södersjukhuset hospital and the SWENTRY registry is planned. An estimated power calculation resulted in 210 cases need for an adequate analysis. Should we not be able to obtain this number, we plan to extend our analysis onto other hospitals of the greater Stockholm area. The aims of this additional analysis are as follows: • to describe the epidemiology of AS in a population of patients presenting in cardiogenic shock due to acute decompensated AS, • to analyse the course of the disease and time trends of the respective treatment of AS in patients presenting in cardiogenic shock, • to analyse treatment efficacy in terms of procedural success, 30-day mortality and MACCE, • to collect clinical and diagnostic findings in this population, including invasive measurements, and • to indicate the prognosis of patients presenting in cardiogenic shock due to acute decompensated AS.

• DFG Programme: Fellowship
• International Connection: Sweden
• Host: Professor Dr. Gianluigi Savarese