AIMS Secondary involvement of the mitral valve is well documented in primary aortic valve endocarditis. A poorly considered, but probably important causative mechanism, involving both left-sided valves, is 'mitral kissing vegetation'. This results from large aortic vegetations prolapsing into the left ventricular outflow tract and making contact with the ventricular aspect of the anterior mitra...

Hemolytic anemia following mitral valve repair and annular ring placement is uncommon compared with mitral valve replacement. A 60-year-old man, who had undergone mitral valve repair with a Duran ring, developed hemolytic anemia and needed a blood transfusion. Transesophageal echocardiography revealed a paravalvular mitral regurgitation jet colliding with the Duran ring. Most cases of severe he...

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...

A study was performed in 13 patients with idiopathic mitral valve prolapse and in 21 control subjects to assess the effect of the cold pressor test on systolic motion of the mitral valve. A significant increase in blood pressure occurred in 10 patients with mitral valve prolapse and in 19 controls after immersion of one hand in ice-cold water. M-mode echocardiographic recordings from the mitral...

BACKGROUND Mitral valve repair is considered better than mitral valve replacement for degenerative mitral regurgitation. AIM To evaluate late clinical results of mitral valve repair as compared to mitral valve replacement in patients with degenerative mitral regurgitation. PATIENTS AND METHODS All patients subjected to open heart surgery for degenerative mitral regurgitation between 1990 an...

Three-dimensional echocardiography offers great promise for improving the understanding of the mitral valve anatomy, function, and pathology. It may have important implications for medical or surgical management of different mitral valve disease. In this article we provide an overview of the three-dimensional anatomy of the mitral valve. Based on the studies using three-dimensional echocardiogr...

A potential complication of mitral valve replacement surgery is the development of a paravalvular leak (PVL). Percutaneous transcatheter closures of PVLs using a wide array of devices have been reported in the literature, although the procedural success rate of this approach remains variable. One major challenge of transcatheter mitral PVL closure lies in the ability to adequately visualize the...

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation, as well as interventional mitral valve repair, offer reasonable therapeutic options for high-risk surgical patients. We report a rare case of early post-interventional aortic valve prosthesis migration to the left ventricular outflow tract, with paravalvular leakage and causing severe mitral valve regurgitation. Initial successful interventional mitral v...

During the period 1970-81, 183 patients underwent mitral valve surgery for chordal rupture. Of these, 82 (45%) patients were treated by mitral valve repair and 101 (55%) by mitral valve replacement. Mean age at surgery was 57 years. The early mortality was nine of 183 (4.9%) patients, of whom five had undergone replacement and four repair. During the follow up period (mean 3.6 years, range 0.8-...