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mitral regurgitation (mr) is a common valvular lesion in the general population with considerable impact on mortality and morbidity. the mitraclip system (abbot laboratories, abbot park, il, usa) is a novel percutaneous approach for treating mr which involves mechanical edge-to-edge coaptation of the mitral leaflets. we present our initial experience with the mitraclip system in 5 patients. in ...

background: atrial fibrillation (af) is prevalent among cardiac patients; and as the risk of thromboembolism is high in this arrhythmia, discrimination of the effective risk factors in producing left atrial (la) thrombosis is clinically important. the molecular structure of lipoprotein(a) [lp(a)] is very similar to plasminogen , so it can be hypothesized that the high level of lp(a) is a compro...

mitral valve replacement (mvr) is usually performed in two methods of running and interrupted suturing. in running method, the suturing of the valve is usually with some traction on the annulus and also there is a risk of aortic valve injury. this study was conducted to evaluate a new technique for suturing to avoid these complications and decrease the time of cardiac arrest. one hundred and se...

Secondary mitral regurgitation (MR) is more frequent, portends a worse prognosis and its diagnostic and management are more difficult in comparison with primary MR. The mechanism of secondary MR is linked to the left ventricle remodeling, while the valve morphology is normal. Surgical treatment of severe secondary MR consists either in mitral valve replacement or in mitral valve repair. The mos...

To the Editor: I read with interest the contribution by Cai et al in the “Images in Cardiovascular Medicine” section of the journal.1 They described a patient who developed severe aortic regurgitation and a mitral valve aneurysm 1 month after successful treatment of Streptococcus mitis endocarditis. The case presentation and the title implied that the mitral valve aneurysm was caused by the eff...

The authors report the case of a 53-year-old man, with a long-standing history of mild mitral stenosis, admitted for worsening fatigue. Transthoracic echocardiography (limited by poor image quality) showed mitral annular calcification, leaflets that were difficult to visualize and an estimated mitral valve area of 1.8 cm(2) by the pressure half-time method. However, elevated mean transmitral an...

AIMS We sought to investigate the additional value of real-time three-dimensional transoesophageal echocardiography (RT 3D TOE)-guided sizing for predicting annuloplasty ring size during mitral valve repair. METHODS AND RESULTS In 53 patients undergoing elective mitral valve repair, an RT 3D TOE was performed pre- and post-operatively. The digitally stored loops were imported into a software ...

Eighteen percent of heart specimens with isolated ventricular septal defect also had a floppy mitral valve. There was no statistical difference in the incidence of floppy mitral valve in the three age groups considered (less than 1 year, 1 to 16 years and 17 to 91 years). In no patient was a floppy mitral valve considered to be the cause of death. Complications of floppy mitral valve (ruptured ...

To determine the echocardiographic and Doppler characteristics of mitral regurgitation associated with a flail mitral valve, precordial and transesophageal echocardiography with pulsed wave and Doppler color flow mapping was performed in 17 patients with a flail mitral valve leaflet due to ruptured chordae tendineae (Group I) and 22 patients with moderate or severe mitral regurgitation due to o...