The first mechanical heart valve prosthesis, designed by Dr Charles Hufnagel, was implanted to the descending aorta of a 30-year-old woman with severe aortic regurgitation in 1952.1 Eight years after the initial successful prosthetic valve implantation, Dr Harken sutured a prosthetic valve (Starr Edwards Valve) to the aortic annulus after removing the diseased native valve. During the ensuing y...

The first mechanical heart valve prosthesis, designed by Dr Charles Hufnagel, was implanted to the descending aorta of a 30-year-old woman with severe aortic regurgitation in 1952.1 Eight years after the initial successful prosthetic valve implantation, Dr Harken sutured a prosthetic valve (Starr Edwards Valve) to the aortic annulus after removing the diseased native valve. During the ensuing y...

OBJECTIVE The approval of a heart valve for the European market takes place in accordance with European and international standards. A new version of the EN Standards was published in June 2006, which responded to different technical innovations in the area of heart valve technology. This work outlines the differences between the new EN ISO 5840 (2005) and the old EN 12006-1 (1999). METHODS W...

Myocardial infarction is very uncommon in young females. We are reporting a case of acute myocardial infarction in a 20 year pregnant female with prosthetic mitral valve. Embolism from mitral valve prosthesis, in-situ thrombosis due to hypercoagulable state of pregnancy or coronary spasm could be responsible.

PURPOSE Only mechanical and biological heart valve prostheses are currently commercially available. The former show longer durability but require anticoagulant therapy; the latter display better fluid dynamic behavior but do not have adequate durability. New Polymeric Heart Valves (PHVs) could potentially combine the hemodynamic properties of biological valves with the durability of mechanical ...

BACKGROUND Published data suggest that rates of thromboembolism and bleeding, in patients with mechanical heart valve prostheses, can be very small by optimizing current anticoagulant therapy. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the occurrence of complications in patients with mechanical heart valve prostheses undergoing anticoagulant therapy optimized through specialized clinics. METHODS We studied the ...

BACKGROUND The indications for continuous oral anticoagulant treatment, the target interval and the procedures for withdrawing treatment have changed in the last 10 years. METHODS Patients on continuous oral anticoagulant treatment at the Outpatient Anticoagulant Clinic at Umeå University Hospital in 2002 were included in a descriptive study (n = 900). 263 of those had a mechanical heart valv...

Background—The United Kingdom Heart Valve Registry (UKHVR) has recently completed collecting information on 52 659 heart valve replacements (in 47 718 patients) performed during the period 1986 to 1995 in the whole of the United Kingdom. Information stored in the UKHVR’s computer database was used for this study. Factors affecting the time from first prosthesis to first redo prosthesis were ana...

A 22-year-old woman required emergency mitral valve replacement three weeks post partum because of thrombotic obstruction of her prosthetic mitral valve. Low dose subcutaneous heparin was administered from the 17th week of pregnancy. Though there was a successful fetal outcome, heparin did not prevent thrombosis on the prosthesis and its continuation into the puerperium proved nearly fatal.