OBJECTIVE To evaluate the cardiovascular findings and clinical follow-up of patients with Williams-Beuren syndrome. METHODS We studied 20 patients (11 males, mean age at diagnosis: 5.9 years old), assessed for cardiovascular abnormalities with electrocardiography and Doppler echocardiography. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was used to confirm the diagnosis of the syndrome. RESULT...

SUMMARY In a series of 135 patients with mitral valvular stenosis, three groups were identified: those in sinus rhythm, those with intermittent atrial fibrillation, and those with longstanding, established atrial fibrillation. Examination of the relationships between atrial fibrillation, hemodynamic findings and radiologic data in mitral stenosis was undertaken. Analysis of clinical and hemodyn...

M itral valve leaflets consist of thin, pliable, fibrous material. The two leaflets—anterior and posterior—open by unfolding against the ventricular wall and close by apposition when the pressure in the left ventricle becomes greater than that in the left atrium. Mitral stenosis occurs when the mitral valve leaflets become stiffened, calcified, and unable to open completely during diastole. Thi...

BACKGROUND Valvular heart diseases and mainly rheumatic heart diseases complicate about 1% of pregnancies. During pregnancy physiological hemodynamic changes of the circulation are the main cause of mitral stenosis (MS) decompensation. Prior to introduction of percutaneous mitral balloon commissuroplasty (PTMC), surgical comissurotomy was the preferred method of treatment in patients with refra...

(Figure 1A,B). Mitral valve mean pressure gradient was elevated to 16 mmHg and MVA was reduced to around 1.0 cm2. The orifice of the mitral valve was located in the lateral site, and both anterior and posterior commissures were fused and unclear. There was also mild tricuspid valve regurgitation, but no other valve stenosis, regurgitation, septal defect, hypoplastic left heart, or abnormal stru...

The echocardiographic motion of the aortic root reflects, in part, left atrial filling and emptying. Patients with mitral valve obstruction were studied to determine whether clinically important alterations in patterns of left atrial emptying would alter motion of the posterior aortic wall. Patients with mitral stenosis had a characteristic pattern of slowing of left atrial emptying in early di...

Background—We examined predictors of early and very long-term outcome after combined mitral and tricuspid valve repair for rheumatic disease. Methods and Results—Between 1974 and 2002, 153 consecutive patients (mean age, 46.0 13.2 years) underwent combined mitral and tricuspid valve repair for rheumatic disease. Mitral disease was predominantly stenosis (82.3%); 100% of patients had organic tri...

OBJECTIVE To determine the efficacy and safety of percutaneous transvenous mitral commissurotomy (PTMC), using multi-track double balloon technique in juvenile mitral stenosis. DESIGN Open non-randomised intervention. SETTING Cardiac catheterisation laboratories of The Mater Hospital, The Nairobi Hospital and Kenyatta National Hospital from 1996 to 2001. PATIENTS Forty five consecutive pa...

The continuity equation suggests that a ratio of velocities at two different cardiac valves is inversely proportional to the ratio of cross-sectional areas of the valves. To determine whether a ratio of mitral/aortic valve orifice velocities is useful in determining aortic valve area in patients with aortic stenosis, 10 control subjects and 22 patients with predominant aortic stenosis were exam...

It is known that rheumatic heart disease frequently results in isolated mitral regurgitation without concomitant mitral stenosis, especially in countries with a high prevalence of rheumatic fever. However, more recent surgical pathologic data also have demonstrated a high incidence of mitral valve prolapse in cases of rheumatic heart disease, which suggests that rheumatic fever may be a cause o...