GUIDELINES FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF VALVULAR HEART DISEASES

American College of Cardiology

Valvular heart disease (VHD) is common and poses important challenges from the standpoints of diagnosis and therapeutic management. Clinical practice guidelines have been developed to help healthcare professionals to overcome these challenges and provide optimal management to patients with VHD. The American College of Cardiology, in collaboration with the American Heart Association, and the European Society of Cardiology, in collaboration with the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, recently updated their guidelines on the management of VHD. Although these two sets of guidelines are generally concordant, there are some substantial differences between them, which may have significant implications for clinical practice.