Bioprosthetic valve use has increased significantly. Considering their limited durability, there will remain an ongoing clinical need for repairing or replacing these prostheses in the future. The current standard of care for treating bioprosthetic valve degeneration involves redo open-heart surgery. However, repeat cardiac surgery may be associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Wit...

BACKGROUND As the prognosis of women with prosthetic heart valves improves, an increasing number are contemplating and undertaking pregnancy. Accurate knowledge of perinatal outcomes is essential, assisting counseling and guiding care. The aims of this study were to assess outcomes in a contemporary population of women with heart valve prostheses undertaking pregnancy and to compare outcomes fo...

The purpose of this study was to use ex vivo testing techniques to determine the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) safety aspects for 32 different heart valve prostheses that had not been evaluated previously in association with the 1.5-T MR environment. Ex vivo testing was performed using previously described techniques for the evaluation of magnetic field interactions (deflection angle and tor...

INTRODUCTION Biological stented prostheses are currently the main type of prosthetic valve used for aortic valve replacement. The ratio of bioprotheses to mechanical prostheses has switched in the last 15 years; the percentage of biological  prostheses implanted has risen from 30 % to 85 %. Moreover the total number of implanted stented bioprostheses remained stable over the last years despite ...

BACKGROUND Advances in surgical technique, prosthetic heart valve design, and anticoagulation have contributed to an overall improvement in morbidity and mortality in women with heart valve prostheses as well as increased feasibility of pregnancy. Previous work investigating the pregnancies of women with prosthetic valves has been directed largely toward understanding the influence of anticoagu...

Heart valve replacement is fast becoming a routine surgery worldwide and heart valve prostheses are today considered among the most widely used cardiovascular devices. Mechanical and bioprostheses have been the traditional choices to the replacement surgeries. However, such valves continue to exposed patients to risks, including thrombosis, infection and limited valve durability. In recent year...

Intervention for valvular heart disease poses unique clinical challenges in cardiology because the diseases are of relatively low prevalence, the interventions do not lend themselves to randomized comparative trials, and important clinical end points are assessed only after decades of follow-up. In addition, continuing advances in prosthetic heart valve technology make follow-up a moving target...

In this review, the anatomy and structure of the aortic valve and its prostheses are comprehensively discussed. Cardiac anatomy and function, human heart valves and their prostheses are also extensively discussed. The current status of prosthetic heart valves along with the next generation of these devices is broadly deliberated. Ather promising options such astranscatheter technologies (percut...