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Figure 1 Survival of patients with chronic severe aortic regurgitation after surgery according to study group and compared with expected survival (solid triangles = group A patients; open triangles = general population matched with group A; solid squares = group B patients; open squares = general population matched with group B). Survival at five years is similar in the two study groups and is not different from expected survival in group A. Ten-year survival of group A does not differ from expected and is significantly higher than that in group B (p < 0.001). Ten-year survival of group B is worse than expected.