An Electromagnetic Acoustic based Technique (EMAT) has been shown to be successful in detecting strut failures in mechanical prosthetic heart valves. [1] The technique works on the basis of the differences between the acoustic resonant modes displayed by intact and fractured valve struts. The defect detection problem is complicated by the fact that the signal from the heart valve is mixed with ...

BACKGROUND Functional tricuspid regurgitation (TR) occurs in patients with rheumatic mitral valve disease even after mitral valve surgery. The aim of this study was to analyze surgical results of TR after previous successful mitral valve surgery. METHODS From September 1996 to September 2008, 45 patients with TR after previous mitral valve replacement underwent second operation for TR. In tho...

For prosthetic heart valves the risk of infection is much higher than for native heart valves. During the course of infective endocarditis 20-40% of all patients suffer from cerebrovascular complications such as ischaemic stroke or intracerebral haemorrhage. We present the case of a 57-year-old woman who had undergone surgery to mechanically replace an aortic heart valve 11 months ago and suffe...

INTRODUCTION Patients with mechanical heart valve prostheses are obligated to receive lifelong oral anticoagulant therapy to prevent thromboembolic complications; however, this treatment is associated with an increased risk of bleeding. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of major hemorrhagic and thromboembolic complications in patients with mechanical heart valves who received ...

St. Luke’s Hospital is a 436 bed community teaching hospital in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA, performing an average of 750 open heart surgeries yearly by four cardiothoracic surgeons. The type of prosthesis for aortic valve replacement (AVR) chosen is based on durability, safety of postoperative anticoagulation, ease of implantation, and postoperative haemodynamic performance. Surgeons at St Lu...

https://e-kcj.org A 40-year-old male was admitted to the cardiac care unit (CCU) due to severe pneumonia associated with unstable hemodynamics. Meanwhile, a grade 3–4 systolic murmur was heard at the left lower sternal border. Tracing his history back, he had undergone mitral valve replacement with a Björk-Shiley convexoconcave prosthetic valve (single tilting disc mechanical valve) 25 years be...

Abstract—The main purpose of this study is to show differences between the numerical solution of the flow through the artificial heart valve using Newtonian or non-Newtonian fluid. The simulation was carried out by a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package based on finite-volume method. An aortic bileaflet heart valve (Sorin Bicarbon) was used as a pattern for model of real heart ...

OBJECTIVE Mitral valve surgery can be performed through the trans-atrial or the trans-septal approach. Although the trans-atrial is the preferred method, the trans-septal approach has also been used recently and has a particular value in beating-heart mitral valve surgery. Herein we report our experience with beating-heart mitral valve surgery via trans-septal approach, and discuss its advantag...

BACKGROUND Published data suggest that rates of thromboembolism and bleeding, in patients with mechanical heart valve prostheses, can be very small by optimizing current anticoagulant therapy. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the occurrence of complications in patients with mechanical heart valve prostheses undergoing anticoagulant therapy optimized through specialized clinics. METHODS We studied the ...

BACKGROUND In Africa in general and in Cameroon in particular, post rheumatic cardiopathies are a health care problem, one of the causes of infertility in the women population and a major cause of death among children and adults. Management of a pregnant woman with mechanical heart valve is a complex issue for all health care providers involved in the care of such patients. PATIENT AND CASE R...