INTRODUCTION Percutaneous pulmonary valve implantation (PPVI) is one of the most exciting recent developments in the treatment of structural heart disease and has evolved as an attractive alternative to surgery in patients with dysfunctional right ventricle-pulmonary artery conduits. Although surgical pulmonary valve replacement is associated with low morbidity and mortality rates, there are ma...

PURPOSE Homograft benefits include excellent hemodynamics, resistance to infection, decreased thromboembolic events, ease of handling, and lack of need for anticoagulation. We examined the short and mid-term results of right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) reconstruction using cryopreserved homografts. PATIENTS AND METHODS From May 1998 to May 2005, 20 patients (male:female=10:10) underwent ...

INTRODUCTION The Contegra® bioprosthetic valved conduit, a glutaraldehyde-preserved valve-containing bovine jugular vein graft (Contegra, Medtronic Inc., Minneapolis MN, USA) introduced for clinical trials in 1998, is used for reconstruction of the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT), mainly in children. This study evaluates our surgical experience with the Contegra® graft, emphasizing the a...

OBJECTIVES We sought to investigate the electrocardiographic (ECG) characteristics for guiding catheter ablation in patients with repetitive monomorphic ventricular tachycardia (RMVT) originating from the aortic sinus cusp (ASC). BACKGROUND Repetitive monomorphic ventricular tachycardia can originate from the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) and ASC in patients with a left bundle branch...

OBJECTIVE We compared the result of radiofrequency (RF)-assisted valvotomy and balloon dilation with closed surgical valvotomy and Blalock Taussig (BT) shunt as primary treatment in selected patients with pulmonary atresia and intact ventricular septum (PA-IVS). BACKGROUND Patients with PA-IVS who have mild to moderate hypoplasia of the right ventricle (RV) and patent infundibulum have the gr...

BACKGROUND Idiopathic ventricular tachycardia (VT) is known to arise from the right ventricular (RV) and left ventricular outflow tracts (LVOT). However, reliable noninvasive methods to localize the optimum ablation site for VT have not been reported. METHODS AND RESULTS Body surface maps (BSM) and 12-lead ECGs were investigated in 35 VTs from the RVOT and 5 VTs from the LVOT in which the ori...

BACKGROUND The reconstruction of the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) in congenital heart disease has attracted the interest of cardiac surgeons determined to alleviate the anatomic obstruction and restore RV function. METHODS From June 1991 to September 2008, 203 consecutive patients (mean, 3.0 years; range, 2 months to 35 years) underwent operations. These patients were classified int...

AIMS Repaired tetralogy of Fallot (rtoF) patients are at risk of atrial or ventricular tachyarrhythmia and sudden cardiac death. Risk stratification for arrhythmia remains difficult. We investigated whether cardiac anatomy and function predict arrhythmia. METHODS One-hundred-and-fifty-four adults with rtoF, median age 30.8 (21.9-40.2) years, were studied with a standardised protocol including...

INTRODUCTION Surgical repair of tetralogy of Fallot is associated with low early morbidity and mortality. However, there may be late morbidity and mortality due to right ventricular dysfunction. The transatrial/transpulmonary technique may ameliorate these long-term complications. Here we present the results from our use of this approach. METHODS A hundred sixty-three consecutive patients (ag...

There is no gold standard for the measurement of pulmonary regurgitation (PR) severity. Two-dimensional (2D) transthoracic echocardiography is most commonly used to quantify PR severity using color Doppler criteria for aortic regurgitation. However, this method is limited by visualization of only one or two dimensions of the proximal PR jet or vena contracta (VC) precluding accurate assessment ...