Prosthetic heart valves are a blessing for people with defective heart valves. One type of mechanical heart valve that was manufactured between 1979 and 1985 has been implanted in approximately 86,000 people. Between 500 and 600 of these valves are known to have failed. The failure occurs when a thin wire strut breaks free, see Figure l. The strut has two legs that are attached to the main body...

INTRODUCTION Patients with mechanical heart valve prostheses must continuously be treated with oral anticoagulants to prevent thromboembolic events related to prosthetesis. These patients should be continually evaluated for the control of oral anticoagulation. OBJECTIVE To compare the occurrence of thromboembolic and hemorragic complications in patients with mechanical heart valve prosthesis ...

Heart valve structures, derived from mesenchyme precursor cells, are composed of differentiated cell types and extracellular matrix arranged to facilitate valve function. Scleraxis (scx) is a transcription factor required for tendon cell differentiation and matrix organization. This study identified high levels of scx expression in remodeling heart valve structures at embryonic day 15.5 through...

Seven cases of single ventricle, six cases of hypoplasia of the right heart (tricuspid atresia), and one case of hypoplasia of the left heart were investigated with reflected ultrasound. In hypoplasia of the right heart there was abnormal anterior movement of the mitral valve; in hypoplasia of the left heart, abnormal anterior movement of the tricuspid valve, and in single ventricle, similiar m...

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation was developed to offer a therapeutic solution to patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis who are not candidates for conventional aortic valve replacement. The improvement in transcatheter aortic valve implantation outcomes is still of concern in the areas of stroke, vascular injury, heart block, paravalvular regurgitation and valve durability. Co...

BACKGROUND Pregnant women with a mechanical heart valve (MHV) are at a heightened risk of a thrombotic event, and their absolute need for adequate anticoagulation puts them at considerable risk of bleeding and, with some anticoagulants, fetotoxicity. METHODS AND RESULTS Within the prospective, observational, contemporary, worldwide Registry of Pregnancy and Cardiac disease (ROPAC), we describ...

Prosthetic heart valve (PHV) replacement replaces a heart disease with another one. There is no ideal prosthetic heart valve. All of the prosthetic heart valves need to be followed by caution. PHV diseases (PHVD) includes a group of pathologic processes like prosthetic valve obstruction, thromboembolism and regurgitation. Correct diagnosis and treatment of these pathologic situations will decre...

Heart valve replacement represents the most common surgical therapy for end-stage valvular heart diseases. A major drawback that all contemporary heart valve replacements have in common is the lack of growth, repair and remodelling capability. In order to overcome these limitations, the emerging new field of tissue engineering is focusing on the in vitro generation of functional, living heart v...

The delicate leaflets that make up vertebrate heart valves are essential for our moment-to-moment existence. Abnormalities of valve formation are the most common serious human congenital defect. Despite their importance, relatively little is known about valve development. We show that the initiation of heart valve morphogenesis in mice requires calcineurin/NFAT to repress VEGF expression in the...

BACKGROUND The CardioMEMS Heart Failure System is a well validated tool to optimize management of systolic and diastolic heart failure and has been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization by 37%. We are reporting a unique case of acute aortic valve insufficiency as a first sign of endocarditis, detected early in a patient with the CardioMEMS device. CASE REPORT A 79-year-old man with dual b...