M itral valve stenosis of origin other than rheumatic fever is a rare entity. Giant-cell myocarditis is an extremely rare, with poor prognosis, probably autoimmune, granulomatous disease of the heart. Progressive congestive heart failure, intraventricular conduction defects and ventricular arrhythmias, which in many cases can be fatal, are the usual manifestations of this disease. On the contra...

The movement of the anterior leaflet of the mitral valve has been recorded with an ultrasound echo technique. The intrinsic mobility of the valve cusps and the rate of ventricular filling are thought to influence the closure of the valve during diastole. Atrial contraction occurs at the end of ventricular diastole and reopens the valve before the mitral valve returns to the closed position befo...

Double orifice mitral valve (DOMV) is an uncommon congenital heart defect. The isolated occurrence of this anomaly is very rare and, more often, is associated with another congenital malformation, dominated by atrioventricular canal defects (AVCD). Mitral insufficiency and/or stenosis may complicate this malformation. Treatment may be summarized as abstention, surgical valve repair, or valve re...

Partial muscular inter-ventricular septal defect (VSD) or Pacman heart is a rare congenital or occasionally acquired anomaly. Concurrent Pacman heart and Shone's complex are extremely rare and have never been reported until now. We described a 37-year-old male patient with congenital Pacman heart, flail mitral valve (FMV), and a history of multiple congenital anomalies, including subvalvular ao...

Enlargement of left atrium (LA) is not infrequently observed in patients with rheumatic mitral stenosis. We recently met a patient who had a giant LA associated with severe mitral stenosis. The right ventricle had almost collapsed due to compression by the LA. Mitral valve surgery was performed for mitral stenosis and the postoperative course was uneventful. Thus, we suggest that clinicians sho...

The electrocardiograms in 32 patients with mitral valve disease have been compared with the pulmonary resistances, the pulmonary artery pressures, and the size of the mitral valve orifice. In patients with pure stenosis if the electrocardiogram showed the pattern of right ventricular hyper-trophy the total pulmonary resistance was usually 1000 dynes seconds cm.-5 or greater. If mitral insuffici...

FEBRUARY 2004 I ENDOVASCULAR TODAY I 31 D uring the last 2 decades, percutaneous endovascular therapies have revolutionized the treatment of coronary artery disease. However, the development and dissemination of percutaneous approaches to heart valve disease have been less rapid. Whereas rheumatic mitral stenosis and congenital aortic stenosis are effectively managed by balloon valvuloplasty in...

a 51-year-old man was admitted to the emergency department with palpitation and atypical chest pain. he had a history of percutaneous mitral valve commissurotomy 20 years previously. he did not use any drugs. physical examination was unremarkable except for a loud s1 on auscultation. the surface electrocardiogram (ecg) showed atrial fibrillation rhythmwith rapid ventricular response and right b...

We describe a 73 year-old patient with mitral valve pericardial bioprosthesis Carpentier-Edwards 29M implanted due to the rheumatic mitral stenosis 21 years ago. Hemodynamic destabilisation had emerged 18 months before the admission. Echocardiography revealed significant bioprosthesis degeneration with calcification of its leaflets, small pannus on the bioprosthetic ring, moderate mitral stenos...