Prosthetic heart valve technology

Heart valve replacement has steadily increased over the past decades due to improved surgical mortality, an aging population, and the increasing use of transcatheter valve technology. With these developments, prosthetic valve complications, including prosthetic valve endocarditis, are increasingly encountered. In this review, we aim to characterize the manifestations of prosthetic valve endocarditis using representative case studies from our institution to highlight the advances and contributions of modern multimodality imaging techniques...

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has emerged as a ground-breaking, minimally invasive alternative to traditional open-heart surgery, primarily designed for elderly patients initially considered unsuitable for surgical intervention due to severe aortic stenosis. As a result of successful large-scale trials, TAVR is now being routinely applied to a broader spectrum of patients. In deciding between TAVR and surgical aortic valve replacement, clinicians evaluate various factors, including patient suitability and anatomy through preprocedural imaging, which guides prosthetic valve sizing and access site selection...

The surgical management of prosthetic valvular endocarditis (PVE) can be challenging. We report a case of a 46-year-old female patient who had a history of four cardiac operations. We chose a mitral valve replacement via right thoracotomy to enable optimal exposure of the mitral valve (MV). Because of multi-reoperations, we employed systemic hyperkalemia for cardiac arrest to protect the heart during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) without aortic cross-clamping. Here, we present a complex operation that performed management of CPB under hyperkalemia and the patient had a good postoperative recovery...

Red blood cells (RBCs) start to break down early in hemolytic anemia, which can be chronic or life-threatening. It should be considered while determining if normocytic or macrocytic anemia is present. Hemolysis in the reticuloendothelial system may happen intravascularly, extravascularly, or both. It accounts for a broad spectrum of laboratory and clinical situations, both physiological and pathological. Whenever the frequency of RBC breakdown is rapid enough to lower hemoglobin levels below the normal range, hemolytic anemia occurs...

INTRODUCTION: Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is the standard of care for selected patients with severe aortic stenosis, irrespective of the surgical risk. Over the last two decades of TAVI practice, multiple limitations were identified. In addition, the extension of TAVI into a wider patient spectrum created new challenges. AREAS COVERED: This review provides an overview of emerging transcatheter heart valves (THVs) beyond the approved contemporary THVs for the treatment of aortic stenosis...

The aortic valve is the most frequently diseased valve and aortic stenosis (AS) is the most prevalent valvular heart disease in developed countries. The diseased native aortic valve can be replaced by either a biological or mechanical valve prosthesis. The main concerns relate to durability, the need for oral anticoagulants and the incidence of complications related to this medication. Experimental, computational and biomolecular blood flow studies have demonstrated that the systolic forward flow but also the reverse flow phase at the end of the systole and leakage during the diastolic phase is mainly responsible for platelet activation and thrombosis...

Infective endocarditis is a rare but devastating disease. Morbidity and mortality rates have failed to improve despite new technological advances. The disease has evolved over time with new significant populations at risk-most notably those with prosthetic valves or implantable cardiovascular devices. These devices pose new challenges for achieving a timely and accurate diagnosis of infection. While the modified Duke criteria is accepted as the gold standard for diagnosing native valve endocarditis, it has been shown to have significantly inferior sensitivity when it comes to identifying infections related to right-heart endocarditis, prosthetic valves, and indwelling cardiac devices...

OBJECTIVE: Pannus overgrowth is a chronic inflammatory process that can cause valve dysfunction and threaten the durability of prosthetic valves. Bileaflet mechanical mitral valve can be implanted in either an anatomical (parallel to the anatomical axis) or nonanatomical (perpendicular or oblique to the anatomical axis) orientation. The effect of the rotational orientation of the bileaflet mechanical mitral valve on excessive pannus enlargement is unknown. The present study compared the effect of bileaflet mechanical mitral valve orientation on pannus overgrowth...

Trapped prosthetic valve leaflets are a rare but challenging complication. A 68-year-old male patient had previously undergone redo aortic valve replacement. Postoperatively, he decompensated with severe mitral regurgitation, requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and a salvage mitral valve replacement via right thoracotomy with very difficult access. This procedure was complicated by a trapped valve leaflet. He recovered well initially but presented 2 years later with worsening heart failure due to mitral stenosis and rising pulmonary artery pressures...

Manual closure of the bronchial stump can be challenging during minimally invasive thoracic surgery. An automated fastener has been used for more than a decade in minimally invasive heart valve surgery to eliminate the need for manual knot tying during the suturing of prosthetic valves. Herein, we describe the use of the COR-KNOT automated fastener (LSI SOLUTIONS® , Victor, NY, USA) in a case of video-assisted left upper lobectomy with open section of the bronchus and manual closure with interrupted resorbable sutures for a malignant bronchial tumor located on the proximal part of the left upper lobe bronchus...

OBJECTIVE: Aortic stenos (AS) is a heart valve disease that commonly affects the elderly. Transcatheter aortic valve implantation is a minimally invasive treatment that allows to replace the function of the diseased native valve with a prosthetic device, relying on catheters for device implantation. According to the current clinical guidelines, the choice of the implanted device is based on preoperative sizing determined by image-based technology. However, this assessment faces inherent limitations that can lead to sub-optimal sizing of the prosthesis; in turn, this can cause major post-operative complications like aortic regurgitation or cardiac electrical signal disruption...

The pulmonary valve is the most frequently replaced cardiac valve in congenital heart diseases. Whether the valve alone or part of the right ventricular outflow tract have to be repaired or replaced depends on the specific pathological anatomy of the malformation. Once the decision to replace the pulmonary valve has been made, two options are available: the isolated transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement and the surgical implantation of a prosthetic valve either isolated or in combination with a procedure on the right ventricular outflow tract...

Aim      Comparative analysis of the effectiveness of a new approach, "SMART rehabilitation of patients after heart valve replacement", which includes, in addition to face-to-face training, Internet technologies in the form of video conferencing, the mobile application "Calculation of the warfarin dose", and a traditional program for educating patients after correction of valvular defects.Material and methods  The study included 190 patients with prosthetic heart valves. The main group consisted of 98 patients who completed a distance learning course...

Over the last 20 years, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has revolutionized the management of aortic stenosis and has become the standard of care across the entire spectrum of surgical risk. Expansion of TAVR in treating younger, lower-risk patients with longer life expectancies, and treating earlier in the disease process, has seen a continuous evolution in device technology, with several next-generation transcatheter heart valves developed to minimize procedural complications and improve patient outcomes...

Photon-counting detector CT (PCD CT) has increasingly garnered interest in cardiothoracic imaging due to its high spatial resolution and ability to perform spectral imaging. CT plays an important role in the planning and postprocedural assessment of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Limitations of current CT technology resulting in blooming and metal artifacts may be addressed with PCD CT. This case series demonstrates the potential advantages of PCD CT in patients prior to and post-TAVR. In TAVR planning, PCD CT allowed for a detailed depiction of the aortic valve, aortic root, coronary arteries, and potential vascular access routes...

New cardiovascular imaging technologies have strongly influenced the diagnosis of bacterial endocarditis [infective endocarditis (IE)]. The clinical presentation of IE is polymorphic, which explains the difficulty of diagnosis and the delay in treatment. Symptoms such as fever, chills, loss of appetite and weight, and embolic phenomena strongly support the diagnosis of endocarditis, but are not always present, particularly in elderly or immuno-compromised patients. Moreover, subtle symptoms in patients at high risk for the development of IE, such as those with prosthetic valves or intracardiac devices, patients with congenital heart disease, and drug addicts should lead to the suspicion that a diagnosis of IE is highly probable...

Valvular heart disease is an important source of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Current prosthetic valve replacement options, such as bioprosthetic and mechanical heart valves are limited by structural valve degeneration requiring reoperation or the need for lifelong anticoagulation. Several new polymer technologies have been developed in recent years in the hope of creating an ideal polymeric heart valve substitute that overcomes these limitations. These compounds and valve devices are in various stages of research and development and have unique strengths and limitations inherent to their properties...

BACKGROUND: Infective endocarditis (IE) is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Following an initial negative transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE), high clinical suspicion warrants repeat examination. We evaluated the diagnostic performance of contemporary TEE imaging for IE. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included patients ≥18 years old undergoing ≥2 TEEs within 6 months, with confirmed diagnosis of IE based on Duke criteria, 70 in 2011 and 172 in 2019, were included...

BACKGROUND: Aspergillus endocarditis (AE) is a rare fatal infection. The infection is often reported in patients with prosthetic heart valves, immunosuppressed, broad-spectrum antimicrobial use regimens, and drug abusers. METHODS: Herein, we report a rare case of native mitral valve AE in a 63-year-old man, with a probable COVID-19-associated invasive pulmonary aspergillosis nine months ago treated with antifungals. RESULTS: In the last admission, the lethargy, neurological deficit, and septic-embolic brain abscess in brain MRI led to suspicion of infective endocarditis...

Infective endocarditis (IE) is a life-threatening microbial infection of native and prosthetic heart valves, endocardial surface, and/or indwelling cardiac device. Prevalence of IE is increasing and mortality has not significantly improved despite technological advances. This review provides an updated overview using recent literature on the clinical presentation, diagnosis, imaging, causative pathogens, treatment, and outcomes in native valve, prosthetic valve, and cardiac device-related IE. In addition, the experimental approaches used in IE research to improve the understanding of disease mechanisms and the current diagnostic pipelines are discussed, as well as potential innovative diagnostic and therapeutic strategies...