The high incidence of thromboembolic complications of mechanical heart valves (MHV), primarily due to platelet activation by contact with foreign surfaces and by non-physiological flow patterns past the valve, still limits their success as permanent implants. The latter include elevated shear and turbulent stresses and shed vortices formed in the wake of the valve's leaflets during the decelera...

Background and Purpose: Candida endocarditis is an infrequent disease with a high mortality rate, which commonly occurs in immunosuppressed patients with cardiac valve replacement. We reported a 70-year-old woman diagnosed with Candida prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE). This study also involved a review of all published cases of Candida PVE from 1970. Case report: Herein, we reported a 70-ye...

BACKGROUND There are no rigorously confirmed effective medical therapies for calcific aortic stenosis. Hypercholesterolemic Ldlr (-/-) Apob (100/100) mice develop calcific aortic stenosis and valvular cardiomyopathy in old age. Osteoprotegerin (OPG) modulates calcification in bone and blood vessels, but its effect on valve calcification and valve function is not known. OBJECTIVES To determine...

transcatheter aortic valve implantation (tavi) is a new therapeutic option for patients with severe aortic stenosis with unacceptable surgical risk for conventional aortic valve surgery. a bicuspid aortic valve (bav) is the most common congenital cardiac disorder (1% of the population) and currently is considered exclusion criteria for tavi, because it predicts an increased risk of adverse aort...

conclusions systemic arterial leukocyte filtration reduces the intubation time but has no other beneficial effect on the outcome of patients undergoing cabg or valve surgery. results the postoperative intubation time was significantly shorter in patients with leukocyte filters (0.014). there was no significant difference between two groups regarding other outcome relatedvariables. patients and ...

Aortic valve endothelial cells (ECs) function in vastly different levels of shear stress. The biomechanical characteristics of cells on each side of valve have not been investigated. We assessed the morphology and mechanical properties of cultured or native valve ECs on intact porcine aortic valve cusps using a scanning ion conductance microscope (SICM). The autocrine influence of several endot...

We have developed a novel microfluidic system for the simple visual quantitation of target molecules in microliter volumes, for application in point-of-care diagnostics. We constructed microfluidic conduits with a critical dimension (height) of a few micrometers in a deformable material and coated the microchannel surfaces with receptors for the target. When a solution containing the target flo...

Research has shown that variable valve timing (VVT) can improve significantly the performance of internal combustion (IC) engines, including higher fuel efficiencies, lower emissions, and larger torque outputs at each point of the engine map. To achieve independent and continuous VVT for each valve, an electromechanical valve drive (EMV) system with a custom-designed limited-angle actuator was ...

To evaluate the usefulness of preoperatie coronary angiography in patients undergoing preoperative investigation because of valvular heart disease, we performed coronary angiography in a consecutive series of 329 patients. The prevalence of significant coronary artery disease was 32%. Asymptomatic coronary artery disease was present in 13%. Angina pectoris proved to be a poor predictor of coron...

T. J. Trella, U.S. Department of Transportation, Transportation Systems Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142 and A theoretical model was developed of the nonlinear dynamic response of a reciprocating air compressor discharge valve system considering unsteady flow. It constitutes an extension of previous modeling procedures where the flow was considered in a quasi steady manner. The most simpl...