QUESTION What are the major concerns during pregnancy for women with prosthetic heart valves? ANSWER There are 2 types of prosthetic heart valves, bioprosthetic and mechanical. Although successful pregnancies are possible for women with prosthetic heart valves, there are potential complications-some of which can be fatal-for both types of valves. Therefore, preconception counseling and assess...

The first prosthetic valve was implanted by Hufnagel in 1952 in a patient with aortic insufficiency. Since then, prosthetic valves have evolved into various mechanical and bioprosthetic shapes and sizes. Despite the excitement surrounding the current development of prosthetic heart valves, surgically implanted valves remain the mainstay of current practice, and this article discusses the hemody...

in recent socio-economic state it is not possible to have different sets of prosthetic cardiac valves available in the operating room before open-heart surgery for valvular replacement. in this study the diameter of the aortic valve ring measured in 2-d echocardiography was compared with the size of the aortic prosthetic valves implanted for the patients with aortic valvular disease. the purpos...

Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is especially suitable for examination of prosthetic valves because of the proximity of the esophagus to the heart and absence of interference with lungs and ribs. This article reviews normal and abnormal morphologic characteristics of prosthetic valves such as spontaneous echocontrast, microbubbles, strands, sutures, vegetations or thrombus. Doppler echoc...