Role of Active Valvular Calcification and Inflammation in Patients With Aortic Stenosis

The aortic valve is the main outlet valve from the heart. This valve can become diseased and narrowed when it needs to be replaced with an artificial valve. Currently, this is the commonest reason for someone to undergo a heart valve operation in the UK. Unfortunately, there are no medical treatments that can prevent or delay the progression of this disease process. Here, the investigators propose to use new state-of-the-art imaging techniques to better understand the disease process so that the investigators can effectively design and assess potential new treatments. The ultimate aim is to stop this disease before patients need to have surgery. In addition the investigators believe this technique will allow us to predict the rate of progression of the disease