It is important to diagnose and treat diseases of the aortic valve. Untreated aortic valve disease can eventually result in heart failure, severe infection, and even sudden death. Some patients present with severe symptoms, whereas others have few, if any symptoms. The diagnosis may be made on a routine physical examination. Regular medical follow-up, treatment to prevent infection of the valve...

A considerable amount of research is currently being done on electromechanical valve (EMV) actuators as a potential replacement for the camshaft in order to achieve variable valve timing. Unfortunately, EMV actuators suffer from large impact velocities between the valve, valve seat, and the actuator itself resulting in excessive wear on the system and producing unacceptable levels of noise. Add...

The timing of prophylactic ascending aortic aneurysm surgery in the setting of bicuspid aortic valve disease is complex, with multiple factors influencing the decision. The 2014 ACC/AHA Valve guidelines recommend prophylactic replacement of the aortic root and/or ascending aorta once the aortic diameter exceeds 5.5 cm. This aortic size threshold for surgery is at a larger diameter than had been...

Echocardiographic studies have confirmed that normal splitting of the first heart sound is a result of mitral valve closure preceding tricuspid valve closure. This fits in with contraction of the left ventricle before the right, but the width of splitting is usually greater than would be expected from the known ventricular asynchrony. The importance of atrial systole, which initiates closure of...

INTRODUCTION VEHICLE engines have made remarkable progress since they first appeared and the operating range of engines in terms of rpm (revolutions per minute) and torque have expanded significantly. However, optimum engine design becomes difficult if the operation timing of the engine valves is fixed. For this reason, variable valve actuation has been used to optimize the valve timing in resp...

Sir: We read the article ‘Anatomic characteristics of bileaflet mitral valve prolapse – Barlow disease – in patients undergoing mitral valve repair’ by Rostagno et al. (2014) with great interest. In this article, they shared their surgical observations about bileaflet mitral valve prolapse (MVP) in terms of mitral valve repair. We appreciated their experiences on mitral valve repair in patients...

Mitral valve repair offers superior long-term survival, freedom from cardiac morbidity, and quality of life in patients with severe mitral regurgitation compared to medical management and mitral valve replacement; it is the treatment of choice in these patients. Mitral valve repair is the only treatment that restores normal life expectancy to otherwise healthy patients with advanced degenerativ...