A 73-year-old woman presented with sinoatrial block. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed a tumor-like mass (2.5 cm × 3.0 cm) located in the mitral annulus (Fig. 1(A)). Caseous calcification of the mitral annulus was suspected, which was supported by computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (Fig. 1 (B-D)). Mitral valve replacement was performed using a 25-mm Mosaic Ultra...

The aortic root was enlarged and a St Jude Medical valve obliquely inserted in 11 patients. Prosthetic valve sizes at least one, but often two, sizes larger than that which would normally be accommodated by the dimensions of the host aortic annulus were used. Closure of the valve was not affected by obliquity. This simple technique is recommended whenever the host aortic annulus does not allow ...

The current report describes a rare case of a caseous necrosis presenting as a pseudotumor in ventricle, revealed by stroke. Cerebral MRI, showing multiples lacunes, evocates a cardioembolic mechanism. Transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography demonstrate a large hyperechogenic mass fixed to the posterior mitral valve and annulus while thoracic tomography revealed a fully calcified les...

Rabbit annulus fibrosus and nucleus pulposus were analysed for hydroxyproline, chondroitin sulphate, keratan sulphate and dermatan sulphate. Tissue proteoglycans were stained for electron microscopy with Cupromeronic blue, used in the critical electrolyte concentration mode, with and without prior digestion by chondroitinase AC or ABC, hyaluronidase or keratanase. Collagen bands, a-e were demon...

A systematic approach using factorial analysis was conducted on the C4-C6 finite element model to analyse the influence of six spinal components (cortical shell, vertebral body, posterior elements, endplate, disc annulus and disc nucleus) on the internal stresses and external biomechanical responses under compression, anterior and posterior shear. Results indicated that the material properties ...

Consider a continuous surjective self map of the open annulus with degree d > 1. It is proved that the number of Nielsen classes of periodic points is maximum possible whenever f has a completely invariant essential continuum. The same result is obtained in negative degree |d| > 1 and for just forward invariant essential continua, provided that the continuum is locally connected. We also deal w...

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation is a novel treatment for severe aortic valve stenosis. Due to the recent use of this technology and the procedural variability, there is very little data that quantify the hemodynamic consequences of variations in valve placement. Changes in aortic wall stresses and fluid retention in the sinuses of Valsalva can have a significant effect on the clinical r...

An 80-year-old woman was referred to our institution because of acute heart failure due to moderate mitral stenosis and severe regurgitation. After medical treatment of heart failure, she underwent mitral valve surgery. Intraoperatively severe calcification of the posterior mitral annulus was revealed. We excised only the anterior mitral leaflet and preserved the posterior mitral leaflet to pre...

Results Of the 202 patients undergoing TAVI assessment with both CMR and TTE, 133 also underwent CCT. Close agreement was observed between CMR and CCT in dimensions of the aortic annulus (bias, 0.4 mm; 95% limits of agreement: 5.7 to 5.0 mm), and similarly for sinus of Valsalva, sinotubular junction, and ascending aortic measures. Agreement between TTE-derived measures and either CMR or CCT was...

We report the isolation and characterization of a new nuclear structure from spermatozoa of the golden Syrian hamster which we term the nuclear annulus. The nuclear annul us was located at the implantation fossa, the point at which the tail is joined to the sperm head, inside the nucleus adjacent to the inner nuclear envelope. Extraction of sperm nuclei with 2 M NaC1 and 10 mM dithiothreitol ca...