background: vitamin d (vit d) is linked to various conditions including musculoskeletal, metabolic and   cardiopulmonary diseases. however, it is not clear whether correction of vit d deficiency exerts any beneficial effect in patients with pulmonary hypertension. methods: this study was a prospective uncontrolled longitudinal study. patients with pulmonary hypertension and vit d deficiency wer...

Objective: To identify perioperative clinical predictors of permanent pacemaker implantation following aortic valve replacement. Design and patients: Prospective cohort study on 276 patients submitted for aortic valve replacement: 267 patients (mean (SD) age, 57.5 (14) years) with no conduction disturbances, and nine patients (67.7 (5) years) with severe conduction disturbances requiring perman...

BACKGROUND The Ross/Ross-Konno procedure is considered a good option for irreparable aortic valve disease in pediatric patients because of its hemodynamic performance and potential for growth of the pulmonary autograft. This study is a review of the long-term results of our 20-year experience with the Ross and Ross-Konno operations in a single institution. METHODS Between June 1995 and Januar...

Living tissue has the potential to replace and reestablish its structure and, therefore, offers the best hope for permanent replacement of diseased cardiac valves. The autologous pulmonary valve has been used to replace the aortic valve in 97 patients since June 1967. An aortic homograft valve, and more recently an autologous conduit of fascia lata, containing a valvular structure, has been use...

While prosthetic valves are acceptable in the subcoronary position, their use for mitral or tricuspid replacement is less satisfactory. Introduced by Ross in I962, aortic homografts for aortic valve replacement have found a definite place in the modem surgical armamentarium and have paved the way towards heart valve grafting. Naturally, for an improved mitral valve substitute, attention was dir...

BACKGROUND Studies of transcatheter pulmonary valve (TPV) replacement with the Melody valve have demonstrated good short-term outcomes, but there are no published long-term follow-up data. METHODS AND RESULTS The US Investigational Device Exemption trial prospectively enrolled 171 pediatric and adult patients (median age, 19 years) with right ventricular outflow tract conduit obstruction or r...

RATIONALE Drug-induced valvular heart disease (DI-VHD) remains an under-recognized entity. PATIENT CONCERNS This report describes a heart valve replacement which was complicated by intractable systemic pulmonary arterial hypertension in a 61-year-old female with severe restrictive mitral and aortic disease. The diagnosis of valvular disease was preceded by a history of unexplained respiratory...

evidence of reduced venous return and alternating end-diastolic fiber length as causative factors. To the Editor: Attie et al.' reported their experience with valve replacement in children with mitral insufficiency. They divided their patients in three groups, depending on the type of prosthesis: mechanical valves, porcine xenografts and dura mater valves. Follow up times were 6.3, 3.3 and 1.9 ...