A 28-year-old man with infective endocarditis of the aortic valve underwent a course of antibiotic therapy, but developed severe aortic root deformity requiring aortic root replacement with a mechanical composite valve conduit. Of note, this patient had undergone a previous aortic valve operation for bicuspid valve stenosis, and indurations and fragility of the aortic root caused by the precedi...

A 73-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital for a scheduled percutaneous transcatheter balloon valvuloplasty of a stenotic tricuspid bioprosthesis. The patient had a history consistent with exertional dyspnea, abdominal distension, and edema of the lower extremities resistant to diuretic treatment over the previous few months. Forty-three years prior, she underwent aortic valve replacement...

Sixty-seven metal-frame-supported autologous fascia lata mitral valves were placed in 67 patients. There was an operative mortality of 25% and an overall mortality of 40% within 20 months. Most of the late deaths were due to valve malfunction which occurred in 50% of survivors. Female patients demonstrated a much higher rate of valve dysfunction than did men. This malfunction of the fascial val...

Implantation of prosthetic valve requires consideration for anticoagulation. The current guideline recommends warfarin on all mechanical valves. Dabigatran is the new generation anticoagulation medication which is taken orally and does not require frequent monitoring. This drug is approved for treatment for atrial fibrillation and venous thromboembolism, but the latest large trial showed that t...

We report a rare case of progressive left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) obstruction after percutaneous device closure of a mechanical prosthetic mitral valve (MV) paravalvular leak (PVL) in the region of aortomitral curtain in a patient who also had small mechanical aortic valve prosthesis with patient-prosthesis mismatch.

OBJECTIVE Intermediate/long-term results after aortic valve replacement using bileaflet mechanical valve in children should be clarified as a standard of treatment of aortic valve disease in children. METHODS Forty-five patients aged under 15 years underwent 46 aortic valve replacements using bileaflet mechanical prosthetic valve. Patients' ages ranged from 1 to 15 years (9 years as a median ...

Considerable progress has been made in recent years toward elucidating a conceptual framework that integrates the dynamic functional structure, mechanical properties, and pathobiological behavior of the cardiac valves. This communication reviews the evolving paradigm of a continuum of heart valve structure, function, and pathobiology and explores its implications. Specifically, we discuss (1) t...

The argillite extracted from Bure site (France) is proposed, after being crushed and com-pacted, as a possible sealing and backfill material in the geological high-level radioactive waste disposal. In this study, the effects of the grain size distribution and the microstruc-ture on the hydro-mechanical behaviour of the compacted crushed argillite have been investigated. The volume change proper...