OBJECTIVE Aortic valve replacement with Braile bovine pericardial prosthesis has been routinely done at the Heart Institute of the Universidade de São Paulo Medical School since 2006. The objective of this study is to analyze the results of Braile Biomédica® aortic bioprosthesis in patients with aortic valve disease. METHODS We retrospectively evaluated 196 patients with aortic valve disease ...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to analyze the midterm clinical results of aortic valve replacement with cryopreserved homografts. MATERIALS AND METHODS Aortic valve replacement was performed in 40 patients with cryopreserved homograft. The indications were aortic valve endocarditis in 20 patients (50%), truncus arteriosus in 6 patients (15%), and re-stenosis or regurtitation after aortic...

infective endocarditis is a serious complication of intravenous (iv) drug abuse, with a reported mortality of 5 to 10%. a 21-year-old man, who was an intravenous drug abuser, presented with fever and dyspnea. transthoracic echocardiography showed a highly mobile, large vegetation on the anterior leaflet of the tricuspid valve. despite antibiotic therapy for ten days, the patient remained febril...

There are only a few cases of prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE) following transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) reported in the literature. Though not very frequent, this is a serious concern because patients are high risk for surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) by definition, and explanting the endocarditic prosthetic valve followed by SAVR increases risk even higher.

The bicuspid aortic valve is known to be the most common congenital cardiac malformation, with an approximate incidence rate of 1-2% in the general population. Most patients are unaware of the disease until the onset of infective endocarditis, which is a life-threatening complication that may affect a heart valve or other cardiac structures at the site of endothelial damage. A 22-year-old man p...

OBJECTIVES To report the mid-term results of aortic root replacement using a self-assembled biological composite graft, consisting of a vascular tube graft and a stented tissue valve. METHODS Between January 2005 and December 2011, 201 consecutive patients [median age 66 (interquartile range, IQR, 55-77) years, 31 female patients (15.4%), median logistic EuroSCORE 10 (IQR 6.8-23.2)] underwent...

A case of bacterial endocarditis was caused by Cardiobacterium hominis in a 41-year-old man with mitral and aortic incompetence due to a previous episode of rheumatic fever. The main distinguishing characteristics of C. hominis are described, and the incidence of endocarditis is reviewed. After six weeks of treatment with effective bactericidal chemotherapy a microbiological cure was achieved a...

Infective endocarditis is a systemic illness that can present with a variety of non-specific clinical symptoms. Patients with certain underlying heart valve abnormalities are at increased risk for development of infective endocarditis while undergoing minor procedures, particularly those associated with bacteremia by pathogens that typically cause infective endocarditis. We present a case of in...

Legionella pneumophila endocarditis is extremely rare. The case of a fit 26 year old man who had previously undergone homograft aortic root replacement is reported. He was admitted with legionella pneumonia during the recent localised outbreak but went on to develop endocarditis. His aortic valve was replaced with a mechanical valve and he made an uneventful recovery. Public health issues and d...

A 39-year-old man with a history of injection drug abuse was given a diagnosis of Nocardia asteroides native aortic valve endocarditis, and he required valve replacement therapy, despite having received potent antimicrobial therapy. This is the first reported proven case of native valve endocarditis due to Nocardia species.