Bicuspid aortic valve is one of the most common congenital cardiac anomalies and it may be accompanied by other cardiovascular anomalies. Sinus of Valsalva aneurysm is a rare anomaly in adult population, but it coexists with bicuspid aortic valve quite often. This report describes a 57 years-old patient who had a bicuspid aortic valve accompanied by unruptured Valsalva sinus aneurysm with signi...

as the population ages, aortic valve stenosis becomes more prevalent. Patients who are symptomatic due to aortic valve stenosis have a severely diminished life expectancy and are, therefore, candidates for surgical aortic valve replacement.1 That said, many of these patients (estimated up to one-third) do not undergo surgery, mainly because of the presence of severe comorbidities and the associ...

hemolytic anemia is exceedingly rare and an underestimated complication after aortic valve replacement (avr).the mechanism responsible for hemolysis most commonly involves a regurgitated flow or jet that related to paravalvar leak or turbulence of subvalvar stenosis. it appears to be independent of its severity as assessed by echocardiography. we present a case of a 24-year-old man with a histo...

To assess the efficacy of the trans-septal approach to the mitral valve, 40 patients who underwent mitral valve surgery via this approach were compared to 37 patients who underwent surgery via the standard left atriotomy. Concomitant procedures included tricuspid annuloplasty, aortic valve replacement, closure of atrial septal defect, coronary artery bypass grafting and aortic valve repair. The...

transcatheteraortic valve implantation, first introduced in 2002, has been established as an alternative modality for patients deemed not suitable for open-heart surgery. the anatomical vicinity of the atrioventricular node and the his bundle to the non-coronary and rightcoronary aortic cusps predisposes patients to conduction abnormalities in case of severe calcification or mechanical trauma d...

Objective: To evaluate the results of two operations, aortic valve-sparing and aortic root replacement, in patients with aortic root aneurysm and the Marfan syndrome. Methods: A retrospective review of 78 consecutive patients with aortic root aneurysm and the Marfan syndrome according to the Gent criteria indicated that 42 patients with normal aortic cusps had an aortic valve-sparing operation,...

Background Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) offers a minimal invasive option for the treatment of patients with severe aortic stenosis at high risk for conventional surgery. The objective of this study was to investigate whether there is a positive effect on the left ventricular remodeling 6 month after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) using cardiac magnetic resonanc...

Forteza et al from the Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre described in this issue of the Revista Española de Cardiología their initial experience with aortic valve sparing operations for aortic root aneurysm in 18 patients with Marfan syndrome. The authors indicated that they have done 40 such operations for aortic root aneurysm. The early results reported are excellent and I commend them for...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To prospectively address the question whether the assessment of valvular hemodynamics and myocardial function during low-dose dobutamine infusion can guide decision making in patients with aortic stenosis and left ventricular (LV) dysfunction. PATIENTS AND MEASUREMENTS Twenty-four patients with aortic stenosis and LV dysfunction (mean ejection fraction, 28%; New York Heart Ass...

OBJECTIVE Prediction of aortic dissection or rupture is extremely difficult in patients with bicuspid aortic valve. We aimed to identify clinical and echocardiography predictors of histological abnormalities of the aortic wall in patients with bicuspid aortic valve undergoing aortic surgery. METHODS We assessed the histology of the aortic wall and clinical and echocardiography variables in a ...