In certain mechanical heart valves, cavitation has been shown to develop during closure and rebound, leading to valve damage, blood damage, and strokes. Whereas it is uncertain what causes mechanical heart valve related strokes, some evidence suggests that stable bubbles may be the culprits. Previous work has indicated that vortex cavitation may contribute to stable bubble growth. Therefore, in...

conclusions preservation of mitral annulus and papillary muscle continuity may enhance post- mvr cardiac performance with low mortality and morbidity rates. the risk of pvd was not significantly higher than conventional mvr in our series. results the improvement of functional status was seen in almost all survivors but was more obvious in the group i. in early follow-up, 56.4% of group i cases ...

transcatheter aortic valve implantation (tavi) is a new therapeutic option for patients with severe aortic stenosis with unacceptable surgical risk for conventional aortic valve surgery. a bicuspid aortic valve (bav) is the most common congenital cardiac disorder (1% of the population) and currently is considered exclusion criteria for tavi, because it predicts an increased risk of adverse aort...

microembolic signals (mes) are frequently observed in transcranial ‎doppler (tcd) recordings of patients with mechanical heart valve (mhv). if gaseous bubbles are the underlying cause, number of mes produced by mhv could be reduced with oxygen ‎inhalation. from september 2003 to september ‎2004, a consecutive series of 14 patients ‎with st jude aortic valve visited in the cardiology clinic were...

To facilitate the radiographic identification of prosthetic heart valves, radiographic silhouettes of various aortic, mitral and tricuspid valve prostheses were analyzed and shematized. Forty different prosthetic valve models (heterograft and mechanical) were obtained from seven domestic manufacturers. Each prosthesis was positioned to approximate the aortic, mitral or tricuspid valve anulus pl...

BACKGROUND Previous attempts in heart valve tissue engineering (TE) failed to produce autologous valve replacements with native-like mechanical behavior to allow for systemic pressure applications. Because hypoxia and insulin are known to promote protein synthesis by adaptive cellular responses, a physiologically relevant oxygen tension and insulin supplements were applied to the growing heart ...

BACKGROUND Pregnant women with a mechanical heart valve (MHV) are at a heightened risk of a thrombotic event, and their absolute need for adequate anticoagulation puts them at considerable risk of bleeding and, with some anticoagulants, fetotoxicity. METHODS AND RESULTS Within the prospective, observational, contemporary, worldwide Registry of Pregnancy and Cardiac disease (ROPAC), we describ...

Calcific aortic valve disease is the most common and life threatening form of valvular heart disease, characterized by stenosis and regurgitation, which is currently treated at the symptomatic end-stages via open-heart surgical replacement of the diseased valve with, typically, either a xenograft tissue valve or a pyrolytic carbon mechanical heart valve. These options offer the clinician a choi...

INTRODUCTION valve disease is an important cause of heart failure. There is a direct relationship between valve deterioration and the patient's inflammatory status and cytokines: interleukin-6, interleukin-1, tumor necrosis factor, and C-reactive protein, involved in this major state of inflammation. OBJECTIVE to report a series of cases of valve replacement, using a bioprosthetic or mechanic...

Recently, several new anticoagulants have been used instead of warfarin for preventing thromboembolism. In the RE-LY (Randomized Evaluation of Long-Term Anticoagulation Therapy) trial, the direct thrombin inhibitor dabigatran etexilate was as an effective and safe as dose-adjusted warfarin for prevention of stroke in high-risk patients with atrial fibrillation. However, the safety and efficacy ...