The PREVUE-VALVE study has been published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Led by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, the study measured how common valvular heart disease is among older adults in the United States. The published methods name Hawthorne Health as the independent research organization that contacted eligible individuals to obtain informed consent and schedule the study procedures. Our sonographers then performed the echocardiograms in participants’ homes, in all 50 states, to the acquisition protocol set by the study’s core laboratory.
Three thousand participants took part, at a median age of 71, and each received a transthoracic echocardiogram at home. The study reports a weighted prevalence of moderate or greater valvular heart disease of 8.2%, rising with age, and estimates that 4.7 million Americans aged 65 to 85 have it today, rising to 6.5 million by 2060.
Earlier prevalence studies drew on people who already had a clinical reason for an echocardiogram, or who were well enough to travel to a medical facility. To measure prevalence in a population, the echocardiograms had to be done where that population is. The authors conclude that the study establishes the feasibility of large-scale decentralized cardiovascular imaging.
The investigators thank Michael Arevelo, Ah’Shirae Arana, and Caroline Callison of Hawthorne Health in the paper’s acknowledgments.
Brener MI, et al. Population Prevalence of Valvular Heart Disease in the United States: The PREVUE-VALVE Study. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2026;87(23):3227-3239. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2026.02.5137. Read it at JACC.