J Heart Valve Dis
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Case Reports
Percutaneous transvenous mitral commissurotomy in a patient with prosthetic aortic valve.
Patients with rheumatic valvular heart disease who have undergone valve surgery may present later with progression of disease in other valves. We report a case of successful percutaneous transvenous mitral commissurotomy (PTMC) in a 58-year-old male who underwent aortic valve replacement (AVR) with a No. 23 Björk-Shiley valve for severe rheumatic aortic regurgitation in 1982. At AVR, echocardiography revealed mild mitral stenosis (MS) and mitral valve area (MVA) 2.5 cm2. ⋯ He underwent successful PTMC (Inoue balloon technique). Post-procedure echocardiography revealed a MVA of 2.0cm2 and grade II mitral regurgitation. Anticoagulation management, infective endocarditis prophylaxis and procedural modifications are discussed.
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Permanent silver (Silzone) coating of the sewing cuff of St. Jude Medical prosthetic heart valves may reduce the rate of prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE). However, the incidence of paravalvular leaks and stroke in patients after implantation of Silzone-coated heart valve prostheses is largely unknown. ⋯ The overall incidence of echocardiographic paravalvular leak graded more than trivial or mild was low (1.6%) in patients followed for a mean of 1.1+/-0.5 years (range: 1-27 months) after valve replacement with Silzone-coated heart valve prostheses. No patient required reoperation due to paravalvular leak; moreover, the stroke rate (1.5%/year) was low in these patients. The present data indicated no significant disadvantages or higher rate of complications related to silver coating compared with other, non-silver-coated prostheses. Future investigation is needed to determine long-term outcome.
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Port-Access video-assisted surgery for mitral valve repair has become an alternative for mid-sternotomy. However, mid-term results are not yet available. ⋯ Port-Access mitral valve repair constitutes a valid alternative to the standard procedure, and has good mid-term results. Video-assisted mitral valve repair appears to be safe and reproducible.
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Comparative Study
Fixation-related autolysis and bioprosthetic aortic wall calcification.
It has been established previously that immediate fixation and increased glutaraldehyde (GA) concentrations are required to prevent severe autolytic tissue damage during bioprosthetic aortic root production. The study aim was to verify that structure-preserving fixation also reduces aortic wall calcification. ⋯ Coincidental fixation-related ultrastructural damage and increased calcification was demonstrated in bioprosthetic aortic wall tissue.
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In patients with aneurysms or dissections of the ascending aorta and additional aortic valve disease, valve-containing composite grafts are used in clinical routine. The study aim was to present our experience with homografts for aortic valve replacement extended by a vascular prosthesis as an alternative to the classical Bentall procedure. ⋯ Short- and mid-term results show that cryopreserved homografts extended by small-sized vascular prostheses can be used safely for Bentall procedures in selected cases where the diameter of the aortic valve annulus is moderately dilated.