BACKGROUND Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) is the most common cyanotic congenital heart disease in Taiwan. This study investigates the long-term survival and risks of TOF in an Asian cohort. METHODS AND RESULTS This study enrolled 819 consecutive patients with TOF (61.1% male), who received total correction between 1970 and 2002, as participants. Patient medical records were reviewed, and the survi...

Injured or ischemic cardiac tissue has limited intrinsic capacity for regeneration. While stem cell transplantation is a promising approach to stimulating cardiac repair, its success in humans has thus far been limited. Harnessing the therapeutic benefits of stem cells requires a better understanding of their mechanisms of action and methods to optimize their function. Cardiac stem cells (CSC) ...

BACKGROUND We report our initial experiences of robot-assisted cardiac surgery using the da Vinci Surgical System. METHODS Between February 2010 and March 2014, 50 consecutive patients underwent minimally invasive robot-assisted cardiac surgery. RESULTS Robot-assisted cardiac surgery was employed in two cases of minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass, 17 cases of mitral valve repa...

BACKGROUND Increasing evidence, derived mainly from animal models, supports the existence of endogenous cardiac renewal and repair mechanisms in adult mammalian hearts that could contribute to normal homeostasis and the responses to pathological insults. METHODS AND RESULTS Translating these results, we isolated small c-kit+ cells from 36 of 37 human hearts using primary cell isolation techni...

Discovery of tissue specific stem cells capable of forming cardiac cell types has revolutionized cardiac medicine. Not long ago, cardiac tissue regeneration was considered an impossible task. The last ten years however has seen an explosion of cell based therapeutic approaches stimulating cardiac regeneration and in the process augmenting function in the heart following injury. Encouraging prec...