A 74 year old woman with mixed mitral valve disease presented with episodes of loss of consciousness and fainting. The attacks were noted to be closely related to posture, especially crouching, and this, with the clinical finding that the radial pulse disappeared before she lost consciousness, suggested the diagnosis of a ball valve thrombus. Cardiac catheterisation confirmed the diagnosis but ...

Fatty infiltration causing changes in the silastic poppet of the Model 1000 series Starr-Edwards aortic valve prostheses (ball variance) has been detected with increasing frequency and can result in sudden death. Phonocardiograms were recorded on 12 patients with ball variance confirmed by operation and of 31 controls. Ten of the 12 patients with ball variance were distinguished from the contro...

A rare presentation with rapidly progressive right heart failure due to tricuspid inflow obstruction (simulating right-sided valvular heart disease) caused by a non-coronary cusp sinus of Valsalva aneurysm with small perforation is reported. The aneurysm was causing ball valve obstruction at the tricuspid valve, leading to dilated right atrium and back pressure changes which were relieved after...

We report successful surgical management of a 26-year-old man with a ball-shaped thrombus of the tricuspid valve. He had been treated with prednisolone for IgA nephropathy and undergone surgical closure of an isolated ventricular septal defect (VSD). No symptoms, coagulative disorders, or pulmonary embolisms were found. Preoperative echocardiography showed a ball-shaped mass that had originated...

Globe valves are one of the oldest types of valve used for throttling applications for all sizes due to better controllability and wider range. One of the major limitations associated with the use globe valves in liquid application is cavitation and it takes place both in part open and in fully open conditions due to varied reasons. There are different designs of globe valves available but for ...

This report reviews the results obtained with the current models of the Silastic ball valve, classifying the experience with the mitral and aortic models into the periods (formula: see text) before and after 1973. Valve failure is defined according to the Stanford method and includes any valve-related death or complication necessitating valve removal (there have been no mechanical failures). Co...

We describe a patient who presented with acute (inferior wall) ST elevation myocardial infarction. Her echocardiogram showed severe mitral stenosis with ball valve thrombus in the left atrial body and thrombus in the left atrial appendage. Coronary angiogram revealed thromboembolic material in the right coronary artery. Mitral valve replacement was scheduled.

An 18-year-old woman, with a 5-month history of intermittent acute headaches, was admitted to her local hospital owing drowsiness and confusion. Her mother described feeling heaviness in the head when leaning forward, dizziness, followed by short intense sometimes accompanied vomiting blurred vision. The symptoms were typically transient disappeared suddenly after few minutes. No focal neurolog...

BACKGROUND Between June 1968 and March 1977, Starr-Edwards cloth-covered ball valves were used for valve replacement on a routine basis. METHODS AND RESULTS Among the 66 operative survivors who underwent an isolated aortic or mitral valve replacement, 20 patients required reoperation 22 times because of valve dysfunction, thromboembolic complication, paravalvular leakage, hemolytic anemia, an...