Echocardiography has become within the last years the main tool in the evaluation of the valvulopathies. Surgery plays a key role in the management of the valvular disorders, but it must be underlined that the surgical timing, planning and indication are all widely based on echocardiography. All the guidelines use the echocardiographic criteria to manage the valvular patients. Echocardiography ...

A 53-year-old woman with a history of hypertension was referred for an echocardiogram by her primary care physician after an unspecified abnormal ECG. The echocardiogram showed normal left ventricular size and function; however, an isolated cleft posterior mitral valve leaflet was identified with concomitant bileaflet prolapse and mild mitral regurgitation. She was subsequently referred to a ca...

A 4-year-old girl with a history of a moderate-sized secundum atrial septal defect and mild mitral valve prolapse underwent transcatheter closure with a 22-mm Amplatzer septal occluder (ASO) (AGA Medical Corporation, Golden Valley, Minn) device. Approximately 12 months later, she presented to the emergency department in septic shock with a 5-day history of fevers up to 105°F and was transferred...

A 70-year-old man was admitted to our hospital for surgical treatment of mitral insufficiency. A preoperative echocardiogram revealed a prolapsed anterior mitral leaflet, membranous septal aneurysm (MSA), and unusual chordae extending from the ventricular septum to the anterior mitral leaflet (Movies I and II in the online-only Data Supplement). In surgery, the aneurysm was examined through the...

concomitant coronary artery bypass surgery (cabg) in patients undergoing mitral valve replacement (mvr) has been shown to be an important risk factor for hospital mortality. we evaluated preoperative characteristics, postoperative complications, in-hospital mortality rate, and length of stay in hospital for patients undergoing concurrent cabg with mvr. preoperative and postoperative clinical da...

quadricuspid aortic valve (qav) is an uncommon congenital anomaly which was an incidental finding during surgery or autopsy in the past. we present the case of a 44-year-old woman with moderately severe aortic regurgitation due to unequal cusp size qav diagnosed via transesophageal echocardiography. due to echocardiographic imaging improvement, the diagnosis of qav is now easier and earlier tha...

Papillary muscle infarction was produced in 16 mongrel dogs by placing sutures around the base of one of the papillary muscles. In addition, patchy infarction of the adjacent left ventricular wall was produced by placing an Ameroid constrictor around the appropriate coronary artery. Mitral insufficiency developed in 14 of these animals; it was severe in four and mild to moderate in ten. Mitral ...

MUCH has been written relative to the physiologic abnormalities produced by mitral stenosis and insufficiency. Most of the data and the concepts derived therefrom have been obtained by right heart catheterization.'--8 The introduction of left heart and combined heart catheterization9-19 has greatly enhanced the value of physiologic study in patients with rheumatic mitral valve disease and has p...

This report deals with a rare complication of disc-valve prosthesis in the mitral area. A significant disc poppet and struts destruction of mitral BeaU valve prostheses occurred 20 and 17 months after implantation. The resulting valve incompetence in the first case contributed to the death of the patient. The durability of Teflon prosthetic valves appears to be in question and this type of valv...