Ace the 2025 CCRP Challenge – Pump Up Your Cardiac Rehab Skills!

Aortic valve stenosis is a condition characterized by the narrowing of the aortic valve, which impedes blood flow from the left ventricle into the aorta. This narrowing creates increased resistance against which the left ventricle must pump, leading to a range of physiological consequences.

In a healthy heart, the left ventricle contracts and propels blood through the aortic valve into the aorta, distributing it to the rest of the body. However, when the valve is stenotic (narrowed), the left ventricle faces increased workload, which can lead to hypertrophy (thickening of the heart muscle) over time. The impact on blood flow can also result in symptoms such as shortness of breath, fatigue, and chest pain during exertion, as the body's organs and tissues may not receive adequate oxygenated blood.

Other choices such as the right atrium, right ventricle, and left atrium are not directly affected by aortic valve stenosis in terms of the flow from the heart to the systemic circulation because they handle different aspects of blood circulation, primarily related to the pulmonary and systemic circuits, rather than the specific outflow from the left ventricle.