Background. Although Doppler echocardiography has been shown to be accurate in assessing stenotic orifice areas in native valves, its accuracy in evaluating the prosthetic valve orifice area remains undetermined. Methods and Results. Doppler-estimated valve areas were studied for their agreement with catheterderived Gorlin effective orifice areas and their flow dependence in five sizes (19/20-2...

The major cause of late mortality and morbidity after prosthetic valve replacement is thromboembolism. The nidus for initiation of thrombus formation has been blood metal interfaces, and a new valve--the St Jude prosthesis--has therefore been developed without any metal components. We have assessed echocardiographically in 27 patients the effects of this valve on left ventricular filling charac...

BACKGROUND Although Doppler echocardiography has been shown to be accurate in assessing stenotic orifice areas in native valves, its accuracy in evaluating the prosthetic valve orifice area remains undetermined. METHODS AND RESULTS Doppler-estimated valve areas were studied for their agreement with catheter-derived Gorlin effective orifice areas and their flow dependence in five sizes (19/20-...

BACKGROUND From October 1977 to October 2002, 4,480 patients (age range, 17 to 94 years; average, 64 +/- 13 years) underwent single valve replacement with the St. Jude Medical heart valve. Of 2,982 aortic (AVR) and 1,498 mitral valve replacements (MVR), concomitant coronary artery bypass grafting was performed on 42% and 33%, respectively. METHODS Cardiac Surgical Associates has maintained an...

T he St. Jude medical cardiac valve prosthesis is presently undergoing clinical hiaL In dfm trials demonstrated superior hernodynamic properties compared with other clinicaIly available d a c valve pros

OBJECTIVE Two patients who suffered acute failure of their St Jude Medical Masters aortic valve prostheses due to leaflet arrest that were unrelated to suture material are presented. It was hypothesized that the valves failed because force applied to bear upon the valve annulus caused the hinge mechanism to become restricted or to arrest. METHODS A study was designed to measure the force that...

Mechanical prosthesis is the first choice for valve replacement at the mitral position in children. Replacement of the original prosthesis because of prosthesis-patient mismatch (PPM) is almost inevitable when prostheses are implanted in small children. The impact of PPM on long-term mortality becomes significant when the effective orifice area (EOA) is severely reduced. In these cases prosthes...