background: cardiovascular disease is an important non-obstetric cause of maternal and fetal /neonatal morbidity and mortality during pregnancy. for a pregnant woman with cardiac disease, the potential inability of the maternal cardiovascular system to contend with normal pregnancy-induced physiologic changes may produce deleterious effects on both mother and fetus. to determine the most freque...

BACKGROUND The clinical relevance of Doppler microembolic signals (MES) in patients with prosthetic cardiac valves was evaluated by merging and statistically reanalyzing patient data from four research institutions (Departments of Neurology, Universities of Aachen, Halle, and Münster, Germany; Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Glasgow, Scotland, and Department of Cardiothor...

A 64-year-old Japanese man was referred to our hospital because of palpitation. An electrocardiogram revealed firstdegree atrioventricular block without ST-T change. An echocardiography showed structural abnormality into the left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT), mitral valve leaflet cleft without mitral regurgitation, and single papillary muscle (loss of posterior papillary muscle) (Figs. 1, 2...

BACKGROUND Estimation of an individual patient's risk for postoperative dialysis can support informed clinical decision making and patient counseling. METHODS AND RESULTS To develop a simple bedside risk algorithm for estimating patients' probability for dialysis after cardiac surgery, we evaluated data of 449,524 patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and/or valve surgery...

Background—The clinical relevance of Doppler microembolic signals (MES) in patients with prosthetic cardiac valves was evaluated by merging and statistically reanalyzing patient data from four research institutions (Departments of Neurology, Universities of Aachen, Halle, and Münster, Germany; Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Glasgow, Scotland, and Department of Cardiothor...

A 54 year old female presented with lower extremity edema, fatigue, and shortness of breath with physical findings indicative of advanced aortic insufficiency. Echocardiography showed severe aortic regurgitation and a probable quadricuspid aortic valve. In anticipation of aortic valve replacement, cardiac computed tomography (Cardiac CT) was performed using 100 kV, 420 mA which resulted in 6 mS...

introduction: infective endocarditis is well known to produce neurologic complications from septic emboli, which mandates a multidisciplinary approach between neurosurgery and cardiac surgery. however, literature is not clear as to the optimal interval length between neurosurgery and cardiac surgery.presentation of cases: the first case involves a 60-year-old woman with significant past medical...

Aortic insufficiency from iatrogenic valve perforation from nonaortic valve operations is rarely reported despite the prevalence of these procedures. Rapid diagnosis of these defects is essential to prevent deterioration of cardiac function. In this paper, we describe a young man who reported to our institution after two open cardiac surgeries with new aortic regurgitation found to be due to an...

The long-term outcome following cardiac valve replacement is primarily determined by three factors: irreversible cardiac and pulmonary pathology secondary to the valvular disease (especially left ventricular myocardial hypertrophy and degeneration, and pulmonary vascular disease), pre-existing cardiac disease, including congenital lesions and coronary arterial atherosclerotic occlusions, and pr...