Transcription profiling of human heart characterizing the progression of heart failure in patients with aortic valve stenosis

Myocardial left ventricular biopsies from male patients (n=6) with isolated aortic stenosis and pronounced left ventricular hypertrophy undergoing aortic valve replacement were harvested either from hearts with normal ejection fraction (EF,>50%) or with low EF (<30%). Biopsies were further obtained from non-hypertrophied hearts with normal EF (>60%) from coronary artery disease patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery (n=3). Total RNA isolated from biopsies was analyzed using Affymetrix HG-U133A and U133B GeneChip sets.