Aetiology
Causes (due to valve disease)
Causes (due to aortic root disease)
- Rheumatic fever
- Infective endocarditis
- Connective tissue diseases e.g. RA/SLE
- Bicuspid aortic valve
Causes (due to aortic root disease)
- Aortic dissection
- Spondylarthropathies (e.g. ankylosing spondylitis)
- Hypertension
- Syphilis
- Marfan's, Ehler-Danlos syndrome
Clinical features
- Early diastolic murmur: intensity of the murmur is increased by the handgrip manoeuvre
- Collapsing pulse
- Wide pulse pressure
- Quinke's sign (nailbed pulsation)
- De Musset's sign (head bobbing)
- Mid-diastolic Austin-Flint murmur in severe AR - due to partial closure of the anterior mitral valve cusps caused by the regurgitation streams