Novel methods for detecting fractures in prosthetic heart valves

Novel Methods for Detecting Fractures in Prosthetic Heart Valves

This paper describes the use of two simple electromagnetic methods for detecting strut fractures in prosthetic heart valves. The first method involves immersing the heart valve in a uniform time varying electromagnetic field and measuring the perturbation of the field in regions proximate to the strut. In vitro tests done to date indicate that the method is capable of discriminating between int...

stress echocardiography in prosthetic heart valves

Prosthetic Aortic Heart Valves

In this review, the anatomy and structure of the aortic valve and its prostheses are comprehensively discussed. Cardiac anatomy and function, human heart valves and their prostheses are also extensively discussed. The current status of prosthetic heart valves along with the next generation of these devices is broadly deliberated. Ather promising options such astranscatheter technologies (percut...

Prosthetic heart valves.

The first prosthetic valve was implanted by Hufnagel in 1952 in a patient with aortic insufficiency. Since then, prosthetic valves have evolved into various mechanical and bioprosthetic shapes and sizes. Despite the excitement surrounding the current development of prosthetic heart valves, surgically implanted valves remain the mainstay of current practice, and this article discusses the hemody...

Prosthetic heart valves and pregnancy.

To the Editor: Pregnant women with mechanical heart valves are an ultrahigh-risk group, in whom all anticoagulant options pose maternal and/or fetal risks. It is unclear why the authors of the recent update1 selected 4 studies, neither the most recent nor of the highest quality, to give a warfarin embryopathy rate of 1.6%. This anomaly rate is not supported by evidence in their Table 1 (3.9% of...