BACKGROUND Haemodynamic performance of heart valve prosthesis can be defined as its ability to fully open and completely close during the cardiac cycle, neither overloading heart work nor damaging blood particles when passing through the valve. In this perspective, global and local flow parameters, valve dynamics and blood damage safety of the prosthesis, as well as their mutual interactions, h...

OBJECTIVES This study sought to evaluate the use of the Direct Flow Medical (DFM) transcatheter heart valve (Direct Flow Medical, Santa Rosa, California) for the treatment of noncalcific pure aortic regurgitation (AR). BACKGROUND The treatment of noncalcific AR has remained a relative contraindication with transcatheter heart valves due to challenges in anchoring devices in the absence of cal...

This is a descriptive cross-sectional study, which aimed to analyze the health related quality of life (HRQoL) and its relationship with gender, age, duration and indication for the use of oral anticoagulants. A total of 178 patients were interviewed and the HRQoL was assessed through eight domains of the SF-36. The descriptive statistics used were, the Student's t, ANOVA and Tukey's tests for ...

A 7-year-old girl with a history of four prosthetic heart valve replacements and daily anticoagulant therapy was treated with modification of the anticoagulant regimen and hospitalization. Coagulation times now are being expressed using the International Normalized Ratio (INR), a move by the international medical community to standardized laboratory values worldwide. This report describes this ...

BACKGROUND Aortic valve replacement with stentless bioprostheses has been shown to produce lower aortic gradients than stented bioprostheses, thus facilitating left ventricular mass regression and preventing heart failure. We sought to determine the long-term results of stentless biological aortic valve replacement over a 17-year follow-up. METHODS Between 1996 and 2012, 2551 patients underwe...

Seven patients have been described who developed a third heart sound in association with a paravalvar leak around a Starr-Edwards mitral valve prosthesis. These patients had all had the mitral valve cusps, chordae tendineae, and part of the papillary muscles excised. The presence of a third heart sound in them supports the concept of Potain (I900) that the third heart sound arises by vibrations...

Objective: To compare survival and outcome in patients receiving a mechanical or bioprosthetic heart valve prosthesis. Design: Randomised prospective trial. Setting: Tertiary cardiac centre. Patients: Between 1975 and 1979, patients were randomised to receive either a Bjork-Shiley or a porcine prostheses. The mitral valve was replaced in 261 patients, the aortic in 211, and both valves in 61 pa...

To facilitate the radiographic identification of prosthetic heart valves, radiographic silhouettes of various aortic, mitral and tricuspid valve prostheses were analyzed and shematized. Forty different prosthetic valve models (heterograft and mechanical) were obtained from seven domestic manufacturers. Each prosthesis was positioned to approximate the aortic, mitral or tricuspid valve anulus pl...

BACKGROUND Severe peripheral arterial disease may pose a limitation to the applicability of trans-arterial aortic valve implantation in patients who are otherwise candidates. For this reason, transapical aortic valve implantation has been proposed as a possible alternative. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the acute safety and performance of a specially designed delivery system, the CoreValve Tranzap de...

OBJECTIVES This report describes our experience with the use of an anticoagulant regimen of adjusted doses of subcutaneous heparin during pregnancy in women with cardiac valve prostheses. BACKGROUND Gravid patients with prosthetic heart valves require long-term anticoagulant therapy. To avoid the increased incidence of fetal morbidity and mortality associated with the use of coumarin agents i...