A 65-year-old woman with severe paravalvular mitral regurgitation and chronic hemolytic anemia was referred for surgical consultation. Her medical history included rheumatic heart disease with mitral valve replacement in 1977, aortic valve replacement in 1988, and repeat mechanical mitral valve replacement in 2002. Predominant symptoms were New York Heart Association function class III dyspnea ...

Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is a common congenital heart defect. All PDAs, regardless of size or degree of symptoms, require occlusion. Transcatheter PDA occlusion features fewer complications than trans-thoracic closure. It is also more cost-effective and has an excellent occlusion rate. Therefore, transcatheter PDA occlusion is accepted as the standard treatment option for PDA. However, tu...

A 43-year-old woman was undergoing radiofrequency catheter ablation of a symptomatic supraventricular tachycardia when a patent foramen ovale (PFO) was detected with passage of the diagnostic electrocatheter into the left atrium. Prior echocardiographic studies had been unrevealing. Upon questioning during the procedure, the patient now admitted to frequent and disabling daily migraine attacks,...

OBJECTIVE To assess the results of anterograde transcatheter closure of a large sized patent ductus arteriosus using the Amplatzer Duct Occluder (ADO) device. STUDY DESIGN A case series. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Department of Cardiology, Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology and National Institute of Heart Diseases, Rawalpindi, from January 2005 to December 2007. METHODOLOGY All patient...

BACKGROUND Transcatheter implantation of the Amplatzer septal occluder (ASO) is an alternative to conventional surgical closure of isolated secundum atrial septal defects (ASDs). Neither the clinical outcomes nor the costs of these procedures have been extensively compared. MATERIAL/METHODS We performed a retrospective cohort study to evaluate cost-effectiveness in patients with secundum ASDs...

A 54-year-old female patient with congenital heart disease had a persistent complete left bundle branch block three months after closure by an Amplatzer ventricular septal defect occluder. Nine months later, the patient suffered from chest distress, palpitation, and sweating at daily activities, and her 6-min walk distance decreased significantly (155 m). Her echocardiography showed increased l...

Stating a well-codified and widely accepted therapeutic conduct for patients with patent foramen ovale (PFO) and previous cryptogenic stroke is made difficult and somewhat controversial by several issues remained unresolved so far. In this short review, some aspects of the possible role played by the PFO in the pathogenesis of cryptogenic stroke are succinctly analyzed. First, some aspects of c...

BACKGROUND Transcatheter closure of coronary artery fistulas has emerged as a successful alternative to surgery. We describe various techniques and short-term findings in 15 patients who were taken up for transcatheter closure of these fistulas. METHODS AND RESULTS Fifteen patients (aged 2-55 years; 12 males) with coronary artery fistulas underwent percutaneous transcatheter closure between J...

Transcatheter device closure was performed under general anesthesia in all the patients. The interventional treatment modality was approved by the ethics committee of our hospital, and informed consent was obtained before the procedure. Femoral artery and vein was routinely punctured. Left ventricular angiography was performed at 60° left anterior oblique and 20° cranial tilt position. The entr...