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At least 271 records · Page 15Linked to original sources
PubMed2003

Emergency valve replacement in rheumatic heart disease.

BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE STUDY: Emergency valve replacement is defined as surgery undertaken to correct valvular heart disease which otherwise would have proved fatal within 24 h. METHODS: Among 1,742 patients who underwent valve replacement during the past 15 years at the authors' institution, 61 who had emergency surgery formed two groups. Group 1 (n = 24) had a previous good circulatory status but suffered a sudden change in valvular function, in the initial period after closed mitral valvotomy (CMV), and in later years after balloon aortic valvotomy (BAV) or balloon mitral valvotomy (BMV) for aortic or mitral valvular stenosis. Group 2 (n = 37) had chronic decompensated rheumatic valvular disease and acute low cardiac output. RESULTS: Four deaths occurred in group 1 (17%) during the early stage of the study, but no deaths have occurred during the past five years. Mean follow up was 13.5 months (range: 5-30 months). Among 20 survivors, 14 were in NYHA class I, and six in class II. Ten deaths occurred in group 2 (27%), including two during the past eight years among patients who had surgery. Mean follow up was 37.7 months (range: 8-96 months). Among 27 survivors, 11 were in NYHA class I, 12 in class II, two in class III and two in class IV. CONCLUSION: In this potential terminally ill group of patients, surgery offers the only option for survival.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Stress echocardiography for evaluation of hemodynamics: valvular heart disease, prosthetic valve function, and pulmonary hypertension.

A broad variety of diseases can affect dynamic cardiac function and contribute to exertional symptoms. Although hemodynamic data at rest may be sufficient to guide therapy in some patients with cardiovascular disease, medical and surgical decisions may be impacted by the cardiac response to stress and the ability to associate exertional symptoms with cardiac hemodynamic response. Stress echocardiography/ Doppler provides a unique noninvasive means to evaluate cardiovascular function and ehmodynamic responses during increased cardiac work. Specifically, stress echocardiographic/Doppler imaging allows assessment of the response to exercise of left and right ventricular function, transvalvular and prosthetic valve gradients, and right ventricular systolic pressure. It has substantial clinical use in the evaluation of patients with equivocal evidence of mitral stenosis, suspicion of dynamic mitral insufficiency or prosthetic valve dysfunction, aortic stenosis and impaired left ventricular systolic function, diseases associated with pulmonary hypertension or cor pulmonale, and among patients with dyspnea of unknown origin. The dynamic nature of cardiovascular disease and the broad spectrum of diseases that affect cardiac function make exercise echocardiography/Doppler an ideal tool ideal for the noninvasive assessment of patients with symptoms of exertional dyspnea.

Echocardiography↗
PubMed1984

[Physiopathology and clinical aspects of myocardial insufficiency].

Myocardial failure is caused by cardiac lesions (specific heart muscle diseases, heart valve disease etc.) and by extracardiac disease (arterial hypertension, endocrinopathies etc.). For the quantification of cardiac function, the relationship between cardiac size or systolic wall stress respectively and ventricular function is important. For diagnostics except for physical examination results mostly non-invasive techniques (chest x-ray, echocardiography, radionuclide ventriculography etc.) are used. Therapy of myocardial failure has to consider primarily the potentially treatable internistic main disease (blood pressure reduction in arterial hypertension, heart valve operations in heart valve diseases etc.). Symptomatically, except dietetic and physical measures, digitalis glycosides, diuretics, vasodilators and newer positively inotropic drugs are used.

Diagnosis, Differential↗
PubMed2003

Acupuncture in patients with valvular heart disease and prosthetic valves.

Endocarditis has been reported in patients with valvular heart disease who have undergone acupuncture treatment, although most have been associated with the use of semi-permanent needles. This has led reviewers to suggest that acupuncture may not only be contraindicated in such patients but that prophylactic antibiotics should be given. This study investigated the use of acupuncture treatment in patients with proven valvular heart disease and observed whether endocarditis developed in such patients. All patients in a single-handed GP practice with proven valvular heart disease, including those with prosthetic valves, were identified over a ten-year period. Those who had undergone acupuncture treatment underwent a clinical examination and diagnostic tests, which focused on the signs, symptoms and laboratory criteria for the diagnosis of endocarditis and included a transthoracic echocardiogram. Autopsy findings were reviewed in any patient who died. Based on these clinical and laboratory data, using the modified Duke's criteria for the diagnosis of endocarditis, patients were identified as having definite or possible endocarditis, or the diagnosis was rejected. All patients underwent brief acupuncture with no skin disinfectant and no prophylactic antibiotics were given. Semi-permanent needles were avoided. Thirty-six patients with valvular heart disease underwent a total of 479 acupuncture treatments over a ten-year period. The median number of treatments was 9 (range 1-72), with a follow-up after treatment of 5.75 years (range 0.5-10 years). Definite endocarditis was not found in any patient, but two patients had possible endocarditis, eventually discounted by both negative blood cultures and echocardiography. In conclusion, brief acupuncture was safe in this small cohort of valvular heart disease patients and no case of endocarditis was detected over a ten-year period.

Acupuncture Analgesia↗
PubMed1984

Plasma beta-thromboglobulin in patients with valvular heart disease with or without valve replacement: relationship with thromboembolic accidents.

Plasma beta-thromboglobulin (BTG) was measured in 132 patients with valvular heart disease: 43 were studied before, 89 after surgery (78 mechanical valves and 11 bioprostheses). In this group of 89 selected patients, a history of thromboembolism was present in 53 (5 of them had bioprosthesis). Some abnormalities have been observed in patients with valvular heart disease as compared with controls: decreased platelet count and retention on glass column, and increased BTG. There is no statistically significant difference in BTG level between patients with (m +/- SD: 62.4 +/- 42.0 ng ml-1), or without (59.5 +/- 41.0 ng ml-1) a prosthesis; in the small series of 11 patients with a bioprosthesis, BTG was slightly lower than in other patients (44.5 +/- 14.1 ng ml-1), but still higher than in controls (26.8 +/- 13.3 ng ml-1). In the patients with a history of thromboembolism, BTG was significantly higher (66.7 +/- 47.9 ng ml-1 than in patients without this complication (49.9 +/- 21.0 ng ml-1). Thus, BTG evaluation may have some value in valvular heart disease but, at present, it should be confined to systematic research including prospective studies.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Use of aspirin as the sole antiplatelet agent following prosthetic valve replacement in rheumatic heart disease.

Aspirin was administered as the sole antiplatelet agent in 147 patients following valve replacement, who were at low risk for thromboembolism. Of these, 67 underwent mitral valve replacement (MVR), 61 aortic valve replacement (AVR) and 19 combined aortic and mitral valve replacement (DVR). The mean follow up period was 6.63 years (range 1-14 years). The incidence of thromboembolic episodes (TEE) in patients following MVR, AVR, and DVR was 0.41, 0.80 and nil respectively. The TEE free survival at the first year follow-up was 98.4%, 99.3% and 100% in patients following MVR, AVR and DVR respectively. Fatal intracranial haemorrhage was not encountered. Valve thrombosis in this patient population was not seen. In conclusion, aspirin as the sole antiplatelet agent appears to be safe and effective following prosthetic valve replacement in selected patients. Further studies involving larger number of patients are necessary to confirm these results.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

[Transesophageal echocardiography: indications and findings. Experiences from 3 centers].

The introduction of transoesophageal echocardiography has greatly enhanced the noninvasive diagnostic possibilities in cardiology. This multicentre report analyses the findings in different indications as well as the rate of complications in 335 consecutive patients on whom transoesophageal echocardiography was performed. The most frequent indication was the search for a cardiac source of embolism (36%). Compared to patients with other indications, thrombi in the left atrial appendage, atrial septal aneurysms and protruding aortic atheromas were significantly more frequent in this group. Transoesophageal echocardiography was performed in 20% for the diagnosis of suspected endocarditis and vegetations and/or paravalvular abscesses could be demonstrated in 46% of these patients. Other important indications included the assessment of mitral valve disease, congenital heart disease, valve prosthesis dysfunction and aortic dissection. Clinically relevant complications occurred in 1.8% and were spontaneously reversible in all cases. Transoesophageal echocardiography is an extremely valuable and safe diagnostic tool in cardiology.

Adolescent↗