For patients with stenotic native valves, the modified Bernoulli equation (delta P = 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...

BACKGROUND Mechanical prosthetic heart valves have been used for many decades to replace damaged native valves. Guidelines mandate the use of anticoagulant therapy in patients with mechanical prosthetic valves of any type, irrespective of the position in the heart. The rationale for this is to prevent valve thrombosis and thromboembolic complications without increasing the risk of excess bleedi...

Our experience with thromboembolism in 283 patients surviving at least 1 week following insertion of Starr-Edwards valves is reported here. Of these patients, 155 underwent aortic valve replacement, 21 had aortic valve replacement with mitral commissurotomy, 80 had mitral replacement, and 27 had both aortic and mitral valve replacement. Complete follow-up data were obtained on all patients, fro...

Pregnancy and delivery were analyzed in 23 women one to ten years after undergoing prosthetic heart valve replacement. The main points of management during pregnancy and delivery were cardiac management and management against thromboembolism. The functional status of the pregnant patients was grade I of the New York Heart Association criteria in eight, grade II in 13 and grade III and higher in...

Since most complications related to operation of prosthetic heart valves are due to disturbances of flow, its hydrodynamic characterization is a useful aid in the design of new prostheses. Besides durability and biological response to implant, these prostheses should provide a favorable hemodynamic profile, considering that there is a great clinical interest focused on the haemolysis of blood. ...

Thrombosis is a life threatening complications of prosthetic mitral valves and is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Even in presence of systemic anticoagulation prosthetic valve thrombosis has an incidence of 0.5% to 8%. Recurrent prosthetic valve thrombosis and the resulting thrombotic occlusion require re-establishment of blood flow across the valve. While surgical repair is consi...