Guzzetti E, et al. - In 177 patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS) and preserved left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (> 50%) who underwent aortic valve replacement (AVR), researchers evaluated how LV mass, remodeling, and regression after AVR are affected by metabolic syndrome (MetS) and diabetes mellitus (DM). All patients had a complete echocardiogram before and 1 year after AVR. Findings showed that higher preoperative LV mass, more LV hypertrophy, and more concentric remodeling were observed in relation to MetS and DM. The investigators noted that, 1 year after AVR, MetS demonstrated less significant LV mass regression, and both DM and MetS persisted with more residual LV hypertrophy.