Heart valve surgery consists of valve replacement and repair. Both operations have been standard strategies for treating heart valve diseases worldwide, and are associated with excellent long-term clinical results. Hemolytic anemia after heart valve surgery, however, is a troublesome complication related to implanted prosthetic valves or rings.

AIM To define therapeutic ways to manage obstetrics at an optimal level for a patient carrying a mechanical prosthetic heart valve. METHOD From a review of literature and documented cases, we propose an obstetrical and cardiological management scheme for pregnant patients carrying a mechanical prosthetic heart valve. We deal successively with the preventive (anticoagulation) and curative trea...

from march 1990 to may 1993,309 patients underwent redo cardiac surgery operation at the shahid rajai heart hospital in tehran. early mortality rates in these patients showed a significant increase in comparison to patients undergoing open heart surgery for the first time. late mortality (at least one month after surgery) in the patients was slightly increased also but less than early mortality...

A 62-year-old woman presented with a sudden transient ischemic attack (TIA). Symptoms resolved within 2 hours of onset. Neurological evaluation and workout for etiology of the TIA was unremarkable. Her medical history included having a St. Jude mitral valve replacement for mitral regurgitation 10 years before presentation. The patient had been maintained on warfarin with INR levels generally in...

For patients with stenotic native valves, the modified Bernoulli equation (AIP = 4v2) may be applied to Doppler-measured transvalvular velocities to yield an accurate estimate of transvalvular gradients. Although it would be useful if the same approach could be used for those with stenotic prosthetic valves, no previous study has validated the Doppler technique in this setting. We therefore rec...

Polymer heart valves have been under investigation since the 1960s, but their success has been hampered by an overall lack of durability mainly due to calcification of the leaflets and a relatively high rate of thromboembolic complications. A new polymer (Quatromer) trileaflet design was tested for its thrombogenic potential and was compared to that of existing prosthetic heart valves routinely...

Prosthesis valve dehiscence is one of the most serious complications prosthetic valves. Despite improvements in medical and surgical treatments, prosthesis has high mortality. Due to fatality rates, early diagnosis treatment these patients required. In this case report, we presented a patient with severe mitral deficiency acute heart failure following mechanical secondary culture-negative endoc...

Thirty one (78%) of 40 consecutive patients (aged 13-79, mean 44 years) with infective endocarditis had congestive heart failure at presentation. Twenty six (65%) had had rheumatic heart disease and 17 (43%) patients had prosthetic valves. Eight (20%) patients had undergone dental procedures within three months of presentation. Blood cultures were positive in only 22 (55%) of the patients. In n...

Thrombosis of mechanical heart valve prosthesis is a rare fatal complication after heart valve replacement. This report describes an old female patient with aortic prosthetic valve thrombosis who had a successful fibrinolytic treatment.