IN THE PAST THREE DECADES a striking change has occurred in the microbiological spectra, clinical features and natural history of infective endocarditis. Undoubtedly, the development of a host of potent antimicrobial agents and their widespread availability and, at times, indiscriminate use, have played a key role. Other important factors include the use of prosthetic heart valves, the increasi...

Sound spectroanalysis was carried out for diagnosis of malfunctioning prosthetic heart valves in 50 cases, which consisted of 31 mitral, 14 aortic, 4 mitral+aortic and 1 tricuspid valve replacements with the age ranging from 17 to 57 years. Types of prosthetic valves used in this series were Starr-Edwards silicon ball valves, metal ball valves, disc valves, Kay-Shiley valves, Smeloff-Cutter val...

PURPOSE Only mechanical and biological heart valve prostheses are currently commercially available. The former show longer durability but require anticoagulant therapy; the latter display better fluid dynamic behavior but do not have adequate durability. New Polymeric Heart Valves (PHVs) could potentially combine the hemodynamic properties of biological valves with the durability of mechanical ...

A pulsatile pressure-flow model was developed for in vitro quantitative color Doppler flow mapping studies of valvular regurgitation. The flow through the system was generated by a piston which was driven by stepper motors controlled by a computer. The piston was connected to acrylic chambers designed to simulate "ventricular" and "atrial" heart chambers. Inside the "ventricular" chamber, a pro...

Since the first report of the application of Doppler echocardiography in the evaluation of prosthetic heart valves 10 years ago, dozens of studies have reaffirmed the usefulness of this technique in the noninvasive assessment of transvalvular hemodynamics. Most of these studies have established "normal values" for Doppler-determined pressure gradients and valve areas of prosthetic mitral and ao...

AIMS To test the hypothesis that inter-observer variability accounts for the wide variation in reported prevalences of fibrin strands on prosthetic heart valves and to develop criteria for their identification and reporting. METHODS AND RESULTS A videotape with 30 sequences of prosthetic heart valves imaged by transoesophageal echocardiography and showing abnormalities such as strands, microb...

There is an increased risk of thromboembolism, anticoagulant-related hemorrhage, fetal-wastage and congestive cardiac failure in pregnant women with mechanical heart valves. In order to have a good outcome, the care of such patients must necessarily be multidisciplinary and in a well- equipped centre with adequate support services .One such patient who had mechanical mitral and aortic valves re...