Search results for "heart valve diseases"
showing 10 items of 40 documents
The influence of Albunex on the pulmonary circulation in patients with pulmonary hypertension or left heart failure.
1996
To determine the safety of the ultrasound contrast agent Albunex, its influence on right and left heart haemodynamics in patients with pulmonary artery hypertension or left heart failure was assessed after intravenous injection. Patients with a left ventricular ejection fraction smaller than 40% or a systolic pulmonary artery pressure greater than 40 mmHg received 0.08 and 0.22 ml.kg -1 Albunex and 10 ml albumin in random order during right heart catheterization and transthoracic echocardiography. Right atrial, systolic and diastolic pulmonary artery and capillary wedge pressures were measured at 3 min and 5 min and cardiac output at 5 min after the intravenous injection of Albunex and cont…
Matrix Metalloproteinases (MMPs), Their Genetic Variants and miRNA in Mitral Valve Diseases: Potential Biomarker Tools and Targets for Personalized T…
2016
Mitral valve diseases (MVD)s, comprising congenital and acquired forms, are characterized by a diverse etiology, pathophysiology, prevalence, and incidence. In industrialized countries, the acquired forms represent 2.5% of all cardiovascular diseases, with a marked augmentation after the age of 65 years. In addition, all forms of MVDs (i.e., degenerative forms) have a difficult clinical management. The major challenge is 'the early diagnosis', and echocardiographic analysis has been shown inappropriate for diagnosing MVD in moderate forms. Thus, there is a strong need to identify more appropriate biomarker tools to diagnose MVDs at early clinical stage before complications occur and worsen …
The Endothelial Transcription Factor ERG Mediates a Differential Role in the Aneurysmatic Ascending Aorta with Bicuspid or Tricuspid Aorta Valve: A P…
2022
The pathobiology of ascending aorta aneurysms (AAA) onset and progression is not well understood and only partially characterized. AAA are also complicated in case of bicuspid aorta valve (BAV) anatomy. There is emerging evidence about the crucial role of endothelium-related pathways, which show in AAA an altered expression and function. Here, we examined the involvement of ERG-related pathways in the differential progression of disease in aortic tissues from patients having a BAV or tricuspid aorta valve (TAV) with or without AAA. Our findings identified ERG as a novel endothelial-specific regulator of TGF-β-SMAD, Notch, and NO pathways, by modulating a differential fibrotic or calcified A…
Mid-term results of bicuspid aortic valve repair guided by morphology and function assessment.
2016
Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) is frequently associated with aortic insufficiency (AI) due to cusp disease and/or aortic root dilatation. Based on functional classification and morphology, a systematic surgical approach was used for aortic valve repair (AVr).From 2004 to 2014, 152 consecutive patients (mean age 55 ± 7 years) with BAV underwent AVr with or without concomitant aortic root surgery. Cusp pathology was treated with central plication in 60 (39.5%) patients, free edge reinforcement in 45 (29.6%), triangular resection in 28 (18.4%) and pericardial patch in 19 (12.5%). Aortic root dilatation was corrected with valve sparing reimplantation in 65 patients. Mean follow-up was 68 ± 36 mont…
Identification of abscess formation in native-valve infective endocarditis using transesophageal echocardiography: implications for surgical treatmen…
1991
The object of the study was to follow patients with endocarditis-associated abscesses in order to evaluate the clinical outcome with and without surgical intervention. Transesophageal echocardiography successfully displayed the location and extent of abscess cavities in 14 patients (group A) with aortic valve endocarditis. The infective process was limited to the perivalvular tissue in two, extended into the ascending aorta in six, and included the interventricular septum, the right ventricular outflow tract, interatrial septum, and/or mitral valve annulus in six patients. The complication rate was significantly higher in group A than in group B, which consisted of 27 patients with proven s…
Prognostic Value of the 6-Min Walk Test After Open-Heart Valve Surgery: EXPERIENCE OF A CARDIOVASCULAR REHABILITATION PROGRAM
2018
PURPOSE: This single-center retrospective analysis aimed to evaluate the prognostic relevance of 6-min walk test (6MWT) in patients admitted to an in-hospital cardiovascular rehabilitation program after open-heart valve surgery. METHODS: One hundred one patients able to perform a 6MWT within the first week of admission (time after surgery: 16 ± 8 d) were included (age 68 ± 11 y; 55% female; median left ventricular ejection fraction 55% [interquartile range: 50-60]; 51% after aortic valve surgery). Study endpoints were cardiovascular death and the combined outcome of cardiovascular death/cardiac hospitalization. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to analyze predictive value …
Extracellular matrix fiber microarchitecture is region-specific in bicuspid aortic valve-associated ascending aortopathy
2016
Abstract Objective Ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm (ATAA) in patients with bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) commonly dilate asymmetrically compared with patients with tricuspid aortic valve (TAV). This discrepancy in aneurysm geometry led us to hypothesize that microarchitectural differences underlie the observed asymmetric dilatation pattern. The purpose of this study was to characterize the microarchitectural distinctions of the extracellular matrix of the 2 phenotypes with a focus on the proportion of radially oriented elastin and collagen fibers in different circumferential aortic regions. Methods Aortic tissue rings were obtained just distal to the sinotubular junction from patients with…
Heart involvement in rheumatoid arthritis: systematic review and meta-analysis.
2013
Abstract Objective The aim of our study was to conduct a systematic review with meta-analysis of the current case–control studies about the valvular and pericardial involvement in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), asymptomatic for cardiovascular diseases. Methods Case–control studies were identified by searching PubMed (1975–2010) and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (1975–2010). Participants were adult patients with RA asymptomatic for cardiovascular diseases, and the outcome measure was the presence of cardiac involvement. Results Quantitative synthesis included 10 relevant studies out of 2326 bibliographic citations that had been found. RA resulted sign…
Viridans streptococcal infective endocarditis associated with fixed orthodontic appliance managed surgically by mitral valve plasty
2018
Abstract Rationale: Streptococcus viridans, a heterogeneous group of alpha-hemolytic streptococci, is part of the normal flora of the mouth, usually responsible for dental caries (Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus sanguinis), and pericoronitis, as well as for subacute infective endocarditis. They are responsible for 40-60% of the endocarditis cases occurring on the normal valves, especially in male patients and over 45 years of age. A change in the bacterial flora of the oral cavity is taking part after orthodontic fixed appliances are introduced into the oral cavity, change that is associated with an increased concentration of the acidogenic bacteria. Bacteraemia is the consequence of or…
Light on the molecular and cellular mechanisms of bicuspid aortic valve to unveil phenotypic heterogeneity
2019
Research on bicuspid aortic valve disease (BAV) and related complications has grown in an exponential manner in the last decades. However, the current knowledge of the mechanisms underlying the development of this disease is still limited, since all clinical and surgical studies on BAV mainly focused their objects on its major vascular complications, such as ascending aortic aneurysms and dissection. It is now clear that a better understanding of the pivotal molecular and cellular pathophysiological aspects of bicuspid valve aortopathy, including natural history, phenotypic expression, histology, cellular mechanisms and pathways, is critical for improving its clinical management. This chang…