Objective: Dilatation of the ascending aorta in adults with bicuspid aortic valves (BAV) is well recognized. Possible dilatation of the aorta in hearts with congenital heart defects and BAV compared to those with unicuspid (UAV) or tricuspid (TAV) ones was investigated.
Methods: The aortas were measured at 6 sites in 89 cases with BAV, 35 with UAV and 66 with TAV. The TAV cases were selected to match the BAV ones with similar ages and diagnoses.
Results: The ages with BAV ranged from stillborn to 69 years, median 39 days, with TAV ranged from stillborn to 36 years, median 19 days (NS), and with UAV ranged from stillborn to 6 years, median 8 days. The deficient commissure in BAV cases was intercoronary in 62%. The only commissure present with UAV was non coronary-left coronary in 75%. Apart from smaller aortic valve size in UAV cases, all other measurements did not vary significantly between the 3 groups. The average ascending aortic diameters were 11.2 (7.5) in BAV compared to 9.3(6.4) in TAV (p= 0.05). The ascending aorta Z scores were –0.09 (0.61) in BAV cases, 0.13 (0.58) in UAV and
–0.15 (0.77) in TAV (p = 0.68 and 0.16 comparing BAV or UAV with TAV respectively).
Conclusion: The aortas were not dilated in these cases with BAV. Further study is required to assess the histology of the aortas in different age groups.