Table 2. General summary of strength of associations seen in observational and epidemiologic studies of clinical risk factors and calcific aortic valve disease.

BMI: body mass index, CAVD: calcific aortic valve disease, +: weak positive association, ++: modest positive association, +++: strong positive association, -: weak negative association, 0: no association seen, n/a: insufficient data available. From Owens DS, O'Brien KD. Clinical and genetic risk factors for calcific valve disease. In: Otto CM, Bonow RO, editors. Valvular heart disease: a companion to Braunwald's heart disease. 4th ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier;2014. Chapter 4, page 54, Table 4-1