Gaasch WH, Lytle BW, Nishimura RA, O’Gara PT, O’Rourke RA, Otto CM, Shah PM, Shanewise JS. ACC/AHA 2006 guidelines for the management of patients with valvular heart disease. Circulation 2006;114:84–231. 5. Bodnar E. The Medtronic Parallel (TM) valve and the lessons learned. J Heart Valve Dis 1996;5:572–573. 6. Van Nooten GJ, Van Belleghem Y, Caes F, François K, Van Overbeke H, Bové T, Taeymans...

OBJECTIVE The optimal orientation of a bileaflet mechanical valve for tricuspid valve replacement (TVR) has not yet been determined. The aim of this study was to use fiberoptic cardioscopy to evaluate the effect of orientation of a mechanical valve implanted in the tricuspid position on bileaflet mechanical valve behavior. METHODS Twelve pigs (50-59 kg) underwent TVR with a St. Jude Mechanica...

From 1982 till 1999, our department performed a total of 2970 heart valve replacements--92% of which were with mechanical heart valves. During this period, there were 8 patients who came to our department with mechanical heart valve obstruction. All these patients presented with signs of heart failure or compromised haemodynamic. Confirmatory tests included transthoracic or transoesophageal ech...

transcatheteraortic valve implantation, first introduced in 2002, has been established as an alternative modality for patients deemed not suitable for open-heart surgery. the anatomical vicinity of the atrioventricular node and the his bundle to the non-coronary and rightcoronary aortic cusps predisposes patients to conduction abnormalities in case of severe calcification or mechanical trauma d...

Current guidelines necessitate varying degrees of long-term anticoagulation in patients with mechanical heart valve(s) to prevent thrombotic and embolic complications. We describe a patient with a functioning aortic mechanical valve without anticoagulation for 23 years. A 68-year-old man had an aortic valve (St Jude Medical) replacement in 1984. His native valve was incompetent from infective e...

Today, with emphasis on the mechanical heart and heart transplantation from one human to another andone species to another, a knowledge of the anatomy of the bird’s heart could contribute to theseaccomplishments. Eight male adult ostriches were used to study the heart macroscopically. This studyrevealed that the ostrich heart has some different features from the other birds. In the ostrich, fib...

OBJECTIVE The approval of a heart valve for the European market takes place in accordance with European and international standards. A new version of the EN Standards was published in June 2006, which responded to different technical innovations in the area of heart valve technology. This work outlines the differences between the new EN ISO 5840 (2005) and the old EN 12006-1 (1999). METHODS W...

INTRODUCTION The formation and collapse of vapor-filled bubbles near a mechanical heart valve is called cavitation. Microbubbles can be detected in vivo by doppler ultrasonography (USG) as HITS (high intensity transient signals) in cranial circulation. We investigated the relationship between exercise induced heart rate increase and HITS formation in cranial circulation. MATERIAL AND METHODS ...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of the prosthesis type on early mortality and long-term survival after re-replacement of aortic valve prosthesis, especially in patients over 60 years old. METHODS Late outcome of 223 patients who underwent a reoperation on the aortic valve and received a mechanical (mechanical group) or biological (biological group) heart valve...