Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the general US population. Although the burden of valvular heart disease is increasing due to a rapidly aging population, patients can benefit from improved and more accessible imaging modalities, and novel minimally invasive treatments. However, medical knowledge and technological developments might not be generalizable to all patient backgrounds due to lack of diversity in scientific literature.~Historically, clinical trials testing new treatment modalities have lacked equitable inclusion of people coming from racial/ethnic minority groups. Similarly, epidemiological studies have focused on specific patient subsets with no direct comparisons with the other backgrounds. The Bronx county (New York, USA) is considered by the US Census as the most diverse area in the country, having the highest overwhelming concentration of non-white populations and being the only borough in all of New York City to be almost exclusively populated by non-white enclaves. These demographic characteristics make this county ideal to assess how the prevalence and the clinical correlates of valvular heart diseases might vary among diverse populations.~On this background, the objective of this registry is to assess the burden of valvular heart diseases and explore their clinical correlates in the most diverse area of the United States.
The Bronx-Valve Registry is designed to collect and assess data on all patients with valvular diseases referred to Montefiore Medical Center for echocardiographic exams.