Symptoms:

• Breathlessness with activity
• Chest pain, angina-type
  • Under the chest bone, may move to other areas
  • crushing, squeezing, pressure, tightness
  • Pain increases with exercise, relieved with rest
• Fainting, weakness, or dizziness with activity
• Sensation of feeling the heart beat (palpitations)

Children born with aortic stenosis may show symptoms of shock, poor feeding, failure to thrive, and shortness of breath.

Note: People with aortic stenosis may not have any symptoms until later in the course of the disease.

Signs and tests:

The health care provider will be able to feel a vibration or movement when placing the hand over the heart. A heart murmur, click, or other abnormal sound is almost always heard through a stethoscope. There may be a faint pulse or changes in the quality of the pulse in the neck. A change in neck pulse is called pulsus parvus et tardus.

Infants and children may be extremely tired, sweaty, and have pale skin and fast breathing. They may also be too small for their age.

Blood pressure may be low.

The following tests may be performed:

• Chest x-ray
• Doppler ultrasonography
• ECG
• Echocardiogram
• Exercise stress testing
• Left cardiac catheterization
• MRI of the heart
• Transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE)