OBJECTIVES: The effect of performing aortic valve repair in combination with valve-sparing operation on the length of time for which patients are free from reoperation is unclear. The objective of this study was to determine if the performance of aortic valve repair during valve-sparing operation modified the freedom from reoperation time. METHODS: From January 2003 to July 2014, 78 patients ...

Objectives: The limited availability of donor valves and experimental evidence that pulmonary valves can withstand systemic pressure made us use cryopreserved pulmonary homografts as aortic valve substitutes. We observed a high incidence of early reoperation because of severe graft insufficiency due to cuspal tears. The mid-term results are evaluated in this study and histological analysis of e...

OBJECTIVES Small pulmonary allografts are difficult to obtain, thus we now use a tailor-made right ventricle to pulmonary artery (RV-PA) conduit for the Ross procedure, consisting of a fresh non-treated autologous pericardial (AP) patch for the posterior wall and expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) monocusp patch for the anterior wall. Long-term durability and RV function were assessed. ...

Of 466 fetuses who underwent cardiac ultrasound examination with cross-sectional and M mode echocardiography and pulsed Doppler ultrasound and in whom we were able to follow the natural history, 12 were found to have atrioventricular valve insufficiency and nonimmune hydrops. Eleven fetuses (all of whom had structural heart disease) died either in utero or during the early postnatal period. In ...

A 2-month-old girl presenting with heart failure and murmur was investigated using Doppler echocardiography and cardiac catheterization revealing an anomalous left coronary artery origin from the pulmonary trunk and massive mitral regurgitation. The patient was submitted to surgery under cardiopulmonary bypass: the anomalous coronary artery was implanted in the aorta and the mitral valve repair...

Nakhonsawan Provincial Health Office, Nakhonsawan 60000, Thailand. Received for publication: March 16, 2006. Reprint request: Panithan Santibhavank, M.D., Nakhonsawan Provincial Health Office, Nakhonsawan 60000, Thailand.

Ronny Bartsch, Jan W. Kantelhardt, Thomas Penzel, and Shlomo Havlin Minerva Center, Department of Physics, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel Intitute of Physics, Theory Group, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, 06099 Halle (Saale), Germany Division of Pulmonary Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital of Philipps-University, 35033 Marburg, Germany (Dated: submitte...