Card- valv

Nowadays some percutaneous options for tricuspid valve (TV) repair are available: Tricinch (4Tech Cardio, Galway, Ireland) mimicking the Kay procedure, Trialign (Mitralign, Boston, MA, USA) aiming to bicuspidise TV, MitraClip (Abbott Vascular, Abbott Park, Illinois, USA) mimicking Alfieri's stitch, direct transcatheter annuloplasty with Cardioband (Valtech Cardio, Or Yehuda, Israel) and transcatheter Forma Repair (Edwards Lifesciences, Irvine, California, USA) providing a surface for leaflet coaptation. A multimodality imaging approach is fundamental for defining the pathophysiology of tricuspid regurgitation (TR), preprocedural planning and intraprocedural monitoring...

A 55-year-old man with a history of erosive, seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and interstitial lung disease presented with shortness of breath. Echocardiography showed new-onset severe left ventricular (LV) dysfunction with an ejection fraction (EF) of 15% and moderately increased mean aortic valve gradient of 20 mmHg in a trileaflet aortic valve with severe sclero-calcific degeneration. Coronary angiography revealed no significant obstructive coronary disease. Invasive hemodynamic studies and dobutamine stress echocardiography were consistent with moderate aortic stenosis...

Studies have shown that medical therapy with renin-angiotensin blockers (RABs) may benefit patients with aortic stenosis (AS). However, its use and efficacy remains controversial, including in patients with low flow (LF) with preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). We examined the effects of RAB use on LV remodeling in patients with severe AS with preserved LVEF, analyzing the differential effects in patients with LF compared with normal flow (NF). This is a retrospective study of 428 consecutive subjects from 2005 to 2014 with echocardiographic diagnosis of severe AS and preserved LVEF...

There are very few data on the prognosis of possible versus definite infective endocarditis (IE). We studied data from 365 consecutive patients with IE involving native heart valve seen in an academic institution from 1990 to 2012. Patients were classified according to the modified Duke criteria for IE: patients with possible IE (n = 101, 28%) and those with definite IE (n = 264, 72%). Patients with possible IE were older than those with definite IE (66 ± 15 vs 62 ± 16, p = 0.05). A causative microorganism was identified in 66% of patients with possible IE versus all patients with definite IE (p <0...

BACKGROUND: Current surgical and medical treatment options for severe tricuspid regurgitation (TR) are limited, and additional interventional approaches are required. In the present observational study, the safety and feasibility of transcatheter repair of chronic severe TR with the MitraClip system were evaluated. In addition, the effects on clinical symptoms were assessed. METHODS: Patients with heart failure symptoms and severe TR on optimal medical treatment were treated with the MitraClip system...

BACKGROUND: Valvular heart disease (VHD) and atrial fibrillation (AF) often coexist. Phase III trials comparing non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) with warfarin excluded patients with moderate/severe mitral stenosis or mechanical heart valves, but variably included patients with other VHD and valve surgeries. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to determine relative safety and efficacy of NOACs in patients with VHD. METHODS: We performed a meta-analysis of the 4 phase III AF trials of the currently available NOACs versus warfarin in patients with coexisting VHD to assess pooled estimates of relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for stroke/systemic embolic events (SSEE), major bleeding, intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), and all-cause death...

Early recognition of group A streptococcal pharyngitis and appropriate management with benzathine penicillin using local clinical prediction rules together with validated rapi-strep testing when available should be incorporated in primary health care. A directed approach to the differential diagnosis of acute rheumatic fever now includes the concept of low-risk versus medium-to-high risk populations. Initiation of secondary prophylaxis and the establishment of early medium to long-term care plans is a key aspect of the management of ARF...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: The use of non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) instead of vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and coexisting valvular heart disease (VHD) is of substantial interest. OBJECTIVES: This study explored outcomes in patients with AF with and without VHD in the ENGAGE AF-TIMI 48 (Effective Anticoagulation with factor Xa Next Generation in Atrial Fibrillation-Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction 48) trial, comparing edoxaban with warfarin...

Progression of degenerative mitral regurgitation (MR) leads to irreversible cardiac damage. Therefore, longitudinal follow up to determine the optimal timing of surgery is critical. Current data indicates that in addition to the standard of care-assessing for symptoms and signs of left ventricular (LV) decompensation with routine echocardiography-serial measurement of natriuretic peptides offers a quantitative means to identify patients who may benefit from closer supervision, if not surgery. Natriuretic peptide levels, and specifically changes from baseline, identify both symptomatic patients and others likely to develop cardiac dysfunction...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Up to 40% of patients with aortic stenosis (AS) harbor discordant Doppler-echocardiographic findings, the most common of which is the presence of a small aortic valve area (≤1.0 cm2 ) suggesting severe AS, but a low gradient (<40 mm Hg) suggesting nonsevere AS. The purpose of this paper is to present the role of multimodality imaging in the diagnostic and therapeutic management of this challenging entity referred to as low-gradient AS. Doppler-echocardiography is critical to determine the subtype of low-gradient AS: that is, classical low-flow, paradoxical low-flow, or normal-flow...

Some cryptogenic strokes are caused by undetected paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) and could benefit from oral anticoagulation. In this study, we searched for echocardiographic parameters associated with first diagnosed AF, to form a scoring system for the identification of patients with AF. We examined 571 patients with ischemic stroke (72.7 ± 13.5 years, 50.6% women), subdivided into 4 groups: documented cause without AF, first diagnosed AF, known paroxysmal AF, and permanent AF. All patients underwent transthoracic echocardiography, brain computed tomography scan, carotid/vertebral ultrasound, and continuous electrocardiographic monitoring...

In subjects with aortic regurgitation (AR) or mitral regurgitation (MR), transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is recommended for surveillance. Few prospective studies have directly compared the ability of TTE and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) to predict clinical outcomes in AR and MR. We hypothesized that, given its higher reproducibility, CMR would predict the need for valve surgery or heart failure (HF) hospitalization better than TTE. Quantitative TTE and CMR were performed on the same day for 51 subjects: 29 with chronic AR and 22 with chronic, primary MR for quantification of valve regurgitation...

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is the treatment of choice for inoperable and high-risk patients with severe aortic stenosis. Our objectives were to elucidate potential differences in clinical outcomes and safety between balloon-expandable versus self-expandable transcatheter heart valves (THV). We performed a retrospective cohort study of all transfemoral TAVI procedures in Ontario, Canada, from 2007 to 2013. Patients were categorized into either balloon-expandable or self-expandable THV groups...

Complications after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) remain an important issue. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of systematic postprocedural multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) to detect subclinical complications after TAVI. From October 2013 to August 2015, a total of 135 patients who underwent transfemoral TAVI (n = 116) or transapical TAVI (n = 19) with Sapien XT and MDCT preprocedure and postprocedure were enrolled. Postprocedural MDCT findings were compared with the preprocedural MDCT findings...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Infective endocarditis is defined by a focus of infection within the heart and is a feared disease across the field of cardiology. It is frequently acquired in the health care setting, and more than one-half of cases now occur in patients without known heart disease. Despite optimal care, mortality approaches 30% at 1 year. The challenges posed by infective endocarditis are significant. It is heterogeneous in etiology, clinical manifestations, and course. Staphylococcus aureus, which has become the predominant causative organism in the developed world, leads to an aggressive form of the disease, often in vulnerable or elderly patient populations...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.