Introduction: Prosthetic valve thrombosis is a rare and severe complication of valve replacement, most often encountered with a mechanical prosthesis. The significant morbidity and mortality associated with this condition warrant rapid diagnostic evaluation. Although surgery is the first-line therapy in symptomatic obstructive mechanical valve thrombosis, thrombolytic therapy has been used as a...

Several prostheses are available to replace degenerative diseased aortic valves with unique advantages and disadvantages. Bioprotheses show excellent hemodynamic behavior and low risk of thromboembolic complications, but are limited by tissue deterioration. Mechanical heart valves have extended durability, but permanent anticoagulation is mandatory. Tissue engineering created a new generation h...

Tissue engineered heart valves (TEHVs) that can grow and remodel have the potential to serve as permanent replacements of the current non-viable prosthetic valves particularly for pediatric patients. A major challenge in designing functional TEHVs is to mimic both structural and anisotropic mechanical characteristics of the native valve leaflets. To establish a more biomimetic model of TEHV, we...

Phonocardiography is-often more valuable than electrocardiography in timing mechanical events in the cardiac cycle. This study shows that the opening and closing of the mitral valve are related to the length of the previous heart cycle as demonstrated by the variations occuring in aluricular fibrillation. These variations in valve action are controlled by the pressure gradient between left auri...

There is limited information about age-specific structural and functional properties of human heart valves, while this information is key to the development and evaluation of living valve replacements for pediatric and adolescent patients. Here, we present an extended data set of structure-function properties of cryopreserved human pulmonary and aortic heart valves, providing age-specific infor...

Prosthetic heart valves are a blessing for people with defective heart valves. One type of mechanical heart valve that was manufactured between 1979 and 1985 has been implanted in approximately 86,000 people. Between 500 and 600 of these valves are known to have failed. The failure occurs when a thin wire strut breaks free, see Figure l. The strut has two legs that are attached to the main body...

Takayasu arteritis is a chronic inflammatory disease of unknown etiology primarily affecting the aorta and its major branches and usually occurring in the second or third decade of life. Here, we report a case of Takayasu arteritis in a 10-month-old patient. The infant presented with signs of congestive heart failure and severe aortic regurgitation. Echocardiography and computed tomography angi...