Table 1.

Valve tissue correlations. AR: Calcium deposit; ORC: Elastin deposit; OPG: osteoprotegerin; OCN: osteocalcin; OPN: osteopontin; RL2: Relaxin 2; Pearson correlation was performed for the percentage area between histology and immunohistochemistry results. r and p value presented. NS =  no significant. Calcification positively correlated with OCN and negatively with elastin and RL2. Elastin negatively correlated with OPN and OCN. OPN significantly correlated with osteocalcin. A negative correlation of RL2 was seen with calcium deposits, osteopontin, osteoprotegerin and osteocalcin.

Tissue biomarkers	Patients (mean ± SD)	r	p-value
Area (%)
AR	52.95 ± 5.41	− 0.562 ORC	0.01
		− 0.456 RL2	0.044
		+0.502 OCN	0.024
ORC	15.74 ± 0.93	+0.888 RL2	< 0.0001
		− 0.584 OPN	0.007
		− 0.685 OCN	0.001
OPG	17.96 ± 2.95	+0.284 AR	NS
		+0.15 OCN	NS
OCN	40.09 ± 6.93	+0.573 OPN	0.008
OPN	32.7 ± 6.53	+0.301 AR	NS
		− 0.064 OPG	NS
RL2	5.62 ± 0.84	− 0.523 OPG	0.018
		− 0.740 OCN	< 0.0001
		− 0.540 OPN	0.014