BACKGROUND Data on the prevalence of valvular heart disease in very old individuals are scarce and based mostly on in-hospital series. In addition, the potential detrimental effect of valvular heart disease on the activities of daily living is unknown. The present study evaluated the prevalence of significant valvular heart disease and the impact of valvular heart disease on the activities of d...

Sydenham's chorea is often encountered in pure form, but it may also occur in association with carditis. Recently, it has been reported that silent, mild valvular regurgitation has been encountered in patients with rheumatic fever manifested by isolated polyarthritis and pure chorea. We studied 22 children with Sydenham's chorea to determine clinical and subclinical heart involvement at the tim...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to define the predictors of chronic carditis in patients with acute rheumatic carditis (ARC). METHODS Patients diagnosed with ARC between May 2010 and May 2011 were included in the study. Echocardiography, electrocardiography, lymphocyte subset analysis, acute phase reactants, plasma albumin levels, and antistreptolysin-O (ASO) tests were performed at initia...

The results of left ventricular volume studies using biplane angiocardiography are described in 20 patients with mitral regurgitation and in 27 patients with aortic regurgitation. In both lesions, a regurgitant fraction of over 60 per cent was likely to be associated with severe symptoms and most patients in this group required operation. End-diastolic volumes were higher in patients with aorti...

soon after cardiac transplantation, but the recipient patients seldom show a postoperative precordial murmur attributable to valve dysfunction. This is not surprising, because mild forms of valvular regurgitation detected by Doppler are often clinically inaudiblee5 Overt signs of tricuspid regurgitation and right ventricular failure were observed in 2 patients with residual postoperative pulmon...

■ EVIDENCE-BASED ANSWER Patients with suspected mitral valve prolapse (MVP) (Figure 1) should undergo echocardiography before any procedure that may place them at risk for bacteremia. Patients with MVP and documented absence of mitral regurgitation or valvular thickening likely do not need antibiotic prophylaxis against subacute bacterial endocarditis (SBE). Patients with MVP with documented mi...

valvular heart lesions have deleterious effects on hemodynamics in parturients during pregnancy. cesarean section with an opioid-based general anesthesia is used to alleviate the adverse effects. we described a case of a 28-year-old primigravida at 37 weeks’ gestation with a diagnosis of severe mitral regurgitation, tricuspid regurgitation, and pulmonary hypertension in active labor. cesarean s...

A patient is reported with isolated pulmonary valvular regurgitation acquired probably as a result of endocarditis at age 22 years. The patents remained essentially asymptomatic with physical findings compatible with haemodynamically significant pulmonary regurgitation until death at age 85 years. A necropsy confirmed the presence of isolated severe pulmonary valvular destruction. This long-ter...

Dilation and hypertrophy of the atria occur in patients with valvular heart disease especially in mitral regurgitation, mitral stenosis or tricuspid abnormalities. In sub-saharan Africa, rheumatic fever is still the leading cause of valvular heart disease. We report a case of an unusual giant right atrium in context of rheumatic stenosis and severe tricuspid regurgitation in a 58-year-old woman.