The Melody® transcatheter pulmonary valve (TPV) is a percutaneous valve system designed for the treatment of obstruction and/or regurgitation of prosthetic conduits placed between the right ventricle and pulmonary arteries in patients with congenital heart disease. In 2000, Melody TPV became the first transcatheter valve implanted in a human; in 2006 it became the first transcatheter valve comm...

The fate is described of 11 patients who had a stored pulmonary valve homograft mounted on a frame or in a Dacron jacket used for mitral valve replacement. Mitral regurgitation due to holes in the attenuated cusps occurred in nine by one year, requiring re-operation or causing death. Only one patient remains well with moderate mitral regurgitation after two years. Since January 1967, 118 patien...

Percutaneous pulmonary valve implantation (PPVI) is now an accepted alternative option to conventional surgery for patients with dysfunctional conduits between the right ventricle and pulmonary artery. PPVI will reduce the total number of repeat operations in such patients. However, surgery remains the primary option in postoperative tetralogy of Fallot patients with severe pulmonary regurgitat...

OBSTRUCTION of a stenotic pulmonary valve by the exploring cardiac catheter, a serious and not infrequent complication of cardiac catheterization, has received little attention in the literature.1-4 Experiences in this laboratory indicate that pulmonary valve obstruction can occur both in a manifest, symptomatic form and in a concealed, asymptomatic form in patients with severe pulmonary stenos...

BACKGROUND Pulmonary valve (PV) insufficiency is often an acquired condition after treatment for pulmonary stenosis. It is recognized that PV insufficiency has serious deleterious effects. Although surgical replacement of the PV is efficacious, artificial valves inevitably fail and require re-intervention. The purpose of this study was to summarize our experience with PV repair in patients with...

The autopsy on a 32-year-old man revealed an absence of the pulmonary valve, a ventricular septal defect, and a single coronary artery. Congenital absence of the pulmonary valve has not been previously reported. The diagnosis of the accompanying pulmonary incompetence is discussed in the light of the catheterization studies and clinical findings. The pathologic abnormalities as found at postmor...

BACKGROUND The results of immediate and short term follow up of balloon dilatation of the pulmonary valve have been well documented, but there is limited information on long term follow up. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the results of three to 10 year follow up of balloon dilatation of the pulmonary valve in children and adolescents. SETTING Tertiary care centre/university hospital. DESIGN Retros...

CXCR7 (RDC1), a G-protein-coupled receptor with conserved motifs characteristic of chemokine receptors, is enriched in endocardial and cushion mesenchymal cells in developing hearts, but its function is unclear. Cxcr7 germline deletion resulted in perinatal lethality with complete penetrance. Mutant embryos exhibited aortic and pulmonary valve stenosis due to semilunar valve thickening, with oc...