In recent years, significant advances have been made in the definition of regulatory pathways that control normal and abnormal cardiac valve development. Here, we review the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the early development of valve progenitors and establishment of normal valve structure and function. Regulatory hierarchies consisting of a variety of signaling pathways, transcr...

When discussing myxomatous valve disease in dogs, one has in mind atrioventricular valves, in particular the mitral valve, which is affected the most commonly and followed by the tricuspid, aortic valve and pulmonic valve, the last being seldom degenerated. Myxomatous mitral valve disease (MVD) is the most common cause of heart failure in dogs (1). In literature it can be found under various na...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the effects of transvalvar flow rate on aortic valve resistance and valve area after percutaneous transvenous balloon dilatation of the mitral valve in a homogeneous group of patients with rheumatic heart disease. DESIGN Retrospective analysis of 12 patients with combined aortic and mitral stenosis who had undergone balloon dilatation of the mitral valve over a perio...

BACKGROUND Surgical treatment of infective endocarditis (IE) remains a challenge, especially in cases of multiple valve surgery. We evaluated the clinical outcomes of native valve IE and compared the outcomes of single valve surgery with those of multiple valve surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS From 1997 to 2011, 90 patients underwent surgery for native valve IE; 67 patients with single valve su...

A 90-year-old woman with two previous mitral valve replacements, presented with pulmonary edema due to mitral regurgitation from degeneration of her bioprosthetic mitral valve. A minimally invasive approach was used to replace the bioprosthetic mitral valve. During surgery, the bioprosthetic valve was noted to be too adherent to the endocardium of the left atrium, making removal of the prosthes...

Most surgical heart valves currently implanted are bioprosthetic tissue valves. Such valves deteriorate with time, eventually presenting with either stenosis or regurgitation. Reoperation, the current standard of care for failed valves, carries significant risk in terms of both morbidity and mortality. Implantation of a transcatheter valve inside a failed surgical valve (valve-in-valve procedur...

acute dissection or the ascending aorta requires immediate surgical intervention. without surgical treatment ii:i,) of the patients will die every hour. in this study we report the result ofoperations on patients with stanford type a aortic dissection. from 1997 to 2003. 26 patients (16 males, 10 females) aged 30 to 71 years (mean age 4~.9 :i: 2.3 years) underwent surgical treatment. in all of ...

OBJECTIVES To identify risk factors associated with cardiac valve calcification that is easily detectable through routine blood tests in patients who received valve replacement therapy. METHODS Four hundred patients with valvular heart disease who underwent valve replacement surgery between December 2009 and January 2013 were enrolled in this study. Of these, 77 had valve calcification; the o...

A 60-year-old man underwent aortic valve replacement with a bileaflet mechanical valve for aortic regurgitation and mitral valve repair using a prosthetic ring for mitral regurgitation (MR). Intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) confirmed no residual MR and a normally functioning aortic prosthetic valve without a paravalvular leak. One week after the operation, transthoracic ech...