A woman with double outlet left ventricle (DOLV) had undergone a Rastelli operation using a prosthetic Björk Shiley valve and who was receiving anticoagulant drug delivered a healthy male infant. Oral warfarin was replaced by heparin from the 5th to the 13th week of gestation and for the last 5 weeks of gestation. Successful pregnancy in patients with DOLV after a Rastelli operation using a pro...

A Co ine Vid A 44-year-old man was referred to the cardiology outpatient clinic due to dyspnea on exertion. He had undergone aortic valve replacement with a biological prosthetic valve (Carpentier-Edwards 23 mm, Edwards Lifesciences, Irvine, California) and reconstruction of the mitroaortic junction due to infective endocarditis by Streptococcus viridians, both events in 2004. Transthoracic ech...

Introduction Late complications such as hemolysis and thrombus formation in patients with an implanted prosthetic heart valve have been related to fluid dynamic characteristics [ 11. Specific blood flow patterns such as flow reversal and vortex flow have been considered to contribute to thrombus formation [2]. In order to detect alterations of flow fields around prostheses in humans MR velocity...

Prosthesis-patient Mismatch (PPM) is not uncommon with an incidence reported up to 70% after aortic valve (AV) replacement. Severe forms of PPM are less common (up to 20%); PPM can lead to increased short- and long-term morbidity and mortality. It is important to discriminate PPM from other forms of prosthetic valve dysfunction. Sometimes, prosthetic valve degenerative disease may coexist with ...

Prosthetic valves are being widely used in the treatment of heart valve disease. Prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE) is one of the most catastrophic complications seen in these patients. In particular, prosthetic valve dehiscence can lead to acute decompensation, pulmonary edema, and cardiogenic shock. Here, we discuss the medical management of late PVE in a patient with a prior history of late...

Fifty-three (3.6%; actuarially 4.1% at 48 months) of 1465 consecutive in-hospital survivors of valve replacement from 1975 to July 1979 (aortic, mitral, or aortic and mitral, only one untraced) developed prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE). Incremental risk factors for developing PVE were native valve endocarditis (p < .0001), black race (p = .0001), mechanical prosthesis (vs bioprosthesis) (p ...

1 find it somewhat surprising that after twcnty years of valve replacement the subject is stiii a topic for discussion at major cardiac surgical meetings. This undoubt ediy reflects the status of valves today since there stili rernains no ideal vaive substitute. In fact in recent years there appears te be a general trend toward trying to preserve the patient's own natural valve by rather extens...

Thrombotic occlusion of a prosthetic Bjork-Shiley valve is a potentially fatal complication. We present the case of a male, 62 years of age, diagnosed with thrombotic occlusion of prosthetic Bjork-Shiley aortic valve approximately 17 years post implantation. A brief review of the literature focusing on potential risk factors associated with the development of this condition and currently availa...

The evolution of echocardiography from 2-Dimensional Transthoracic Echo through to real time 3-Dimensional Transoesophageal Echo has enabled more accurate visualisation and quantification of valvular disorders especially prosthetic mitral valve paravalvular regurgitation. However, validation of accuracy is rarely confirmed by surgical or post-mortem specimens. We present a case directly compari...