Valve Haemolysis

There is a global outbreak of infections due to Mycobacterium chimaera associated with cardiac surgery. The most serious infections involve prosthetic material implantation, and all have followed surgical procedures involving cardiopulmonary bypass. We describe a cluster of four cases following cardiac surgery at a tertiary referral centre in Sydney, Australia. We report novel clinical findings, including haemolysis and kidney rupture possibly related to immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome. The positive effect of corticosteroids on haemodynamic function in two cases and the failure of currently recommended antimicrobial therapy to sterilise prosthetic valve material in the absence of surgery despite months of treatment are also critically examined...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

INTRODUCTION: A significant paravalvular leak (PVL) is estimated in at least 1-3% of patients undergoing surgical aortic and/or mitral valve replacement. Surgical repair of a PVL is associated with a 30-day mortality of approximately 10%. Percutaneous closure of PVL has emerged as an alternative to surgical repair. AIM: We sought to examine the clinical outcomes of patients treated with percutaneous closure of PVL at an Irish tertiary referral centre. METHODS: A prospective registry was used to record patient and procedural characteristics at the time of the PVL procedure...

Cold haemagglutination is a primary or acquired autoimmune disease involving antibodies that lead to agglutination of red blood cells at low temperature followed by complement fixation and haemolysis on rewarming. This disease can lead to adverse consequences in patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery, especially when hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass is applied. The authors discuss the management of two patients who underwent mitral valve replacement surgery while cold agglutinins were detected in the perioperative period...

INTRODUCTION: Bioprosthesis are increasingly used for aortic valve replacement (AVR), as a result of increasing elderly patients, as well as, continuous improvements in durability and hemodynamic performance of pericardial prosthesis. The Trifecta aortic prosthesis is a latest-generation trileaflet stented pericardial valve designed for supra-annular placement in the aortic position. This study establishes the safety and early clinical and hemodynamic performance of the Trifecta valve...

Haemolytic anaemia caused by a paravalvular leak presenting as progressively worsening red urine. Haemoglobinuria was easily mistaken for gross haematuria, resulting in extensive invasive urological investigation that proved to be futile. Further investigation following an emergency admission led to the realisation that intravascular haemolysis secondary to a paravalvular leakâ€"presenting 43 years following metallic valve insertionâ€"was the cause of discoloured urine and newly presenting symptomatic anaemia...

Primary chronic cold agglutinin disease (CAD) is an autoimmune haemolytic anaemia in which a specific bone marrow lymphoproliferative disorder causes production of cold agglutinins (CA). Binding of CA to erythrocyte surface antigens results in a predominantly extravascular haemolysis that is entirely complement dependent. Because of complement activation, exacerbations are common during febrile infections, trauma or major surgery. Involvement of the terminal complement pathway with C5-mediated intravascular haemolysis is probably not prominent in stable disease but is supposed to be of importance in exacerbations following acute phase reaction...

OBJECTIVES: Minimally invasive valve surgery (MIVS) is associated with improved clinical outcome but longer cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) time. The aim of the present study is to compare inflammatory and coagulation parameters in patients undergoing minimally invasive or standard valve surgery. METHODS: A prospective non-randomized study was performed enrolling 79 patients undergoing mitral (20 right mini-thoracotomy and 18 standard sternotomy) and aortic valve (20 mini-sternotomy and 21 standard sternotomy) procedures...

BACKGROUND: Haemodynamic performance of heart valve prosthesis can be defined as its ability to fully open and completely close during the cardiac cycle, neither overloading heart work nor damaging blood particles when passing through the valve. In this perspective, global and local flow parameters, valve dynamics and blood damage safety of the prosthesis, as well as their mutual interactions, have all to be accounted for when assessing the device functionality. Even though all these issues have been and continue to be widely investigated, they are not usually studied through an integrated approach yet, i...

Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency is among the most common enzymatic disorders of red blood cells. Cardiac surgeries on this group of individuals are associated with an additional risk in terms of impaired oxygenation, prolonged ventilation and increased risk of haemolysis. These patients have a very low threshold for haemolysis due to oxidative stress. Many commonly used drugs also predispose the individual for haemolysis when they are subjected to surgery. Here we present a known case of G6PD deficient patient with symptoms of breathlessness for the last nine years who was taken for surgery with pre-planned precautionary measures to avoid unnecessary haemolysis...

BACKGROUND: Although most studies have shown that little haemolysis is induced by infusion pumps, there are some notable exceptions. Only limited data are available on the actual infusion pumps that are most used in hospitals in Quebec and elsewhere, namely, the Infusomat® Space (peristaltic), Plum A+™ (piston) and Colleague® CXE (shuttle) pumps. METHODS: Haemolysis and potassium levels were compared before and after the use of the three different infusion pumps...

BACKGROUND: Implantation of a rotary blood pump (RBP) can cause non-physiological flow fields in the left ventricle (LV) which may trigger thrombosis. Different inflow cannula geometry can affect LV flow fields. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of inflow cannula geometry on intraventricular flow under full LV support in a patient specific model. METHODS: Computed tomography angiography imaging of the LV was performed on a RBP candidate to develop a patient-specific model...

The incidence of paravalvular leaks after surgical valve replacement is estimated to be 2-17%. Paravalvular leaks (PVL) can be asymptomatic and not require treatment or can cause haemolysis or heart failure. If symptomatic or if the severity of the leak is moderate or severe, redo surgery is a therapeutic option, but this is accompanied by a high perioperative risk and a high recurrence rate. A lower risk alternative is percutaneous PVL closure, with a 1-2% risk of periprocedural death or need for reoperation...

Paravalvular leak (PVL) occurs after both surgical and transcatheter valve replacement/implantation. It can lead to haemolysis, heart failure and may increase the risk of endocarditis. Percutaneous closure has significantly less morbidity than re-operation and is therefore often the therapy of choice. Percutaneous PVL closure can make an important difference for patients and can improve patient prognosis. These procedures can be intricate and larger case series and research is needed to further develop and improve these procedures...

Paravalvular leak is a common complication after surgical mitral valve replacement. Surgically implanted prosthetic valves are complicated with paravalvular leaks in 17%.(1) Surgical closure of paravalvular leaks is the most common therapy for these defects. Percutaneous closure is an alternative to repeat surgery for a selected high-risk population. We present a case of a patient who developed severe haemolytic anaemia and secondary renal failure after partially successful percutaneous closure of paravalvular leakage of a prosthetic mitral valve...

A detailed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study of transient, turbulent blood flow through a positive displacement left ventricular assist device is performed. Two common models for non-Newtonian blood flow are compared to the Newtonian model to investigate their impact on predicted levels of shear rate and wall shear stress. Given that both parameters are directly relevant to the evaluation of risk from thrombus and haemolysis, there is a need to assess the sensitivity to modelling non-Newtonian flow effects within a pulsatile turbulent flow, in order to identify levels of uncertainly in CFD...

A 62-year-old man presented to his general practitioner with a 10-day history of dark red urine. Subsequent blood tests revealed an acute kidney injury and anaemia. His only medical history was a prosthetic mitral valve replacement 30 years previously for rheumatic valve disease. Following referral to a urology service, initial investigations, including CT KUB (kidneys, ureters, bladder), excluded a urological cause for his presentation. A haemolysis screen was positive. A transthoracic echocardiogram reported severe aortic stenosis and aortic incompetence...

AIMS: We sought to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of hybrid transapical closure of paravalvar mitral leaks using a new Occlutech PLD occluder in patients with heart failure and/or haemolytic anaemia. METHODS AND RESULTS: Retrospective analysis of clinical and procedural data was undertaken for patients who had attempted closure of paravalvar mitral leaks via a hybrid transapical approach with the Occlutech PLD occluder. Eight patients (four males, median age 69 years) underwent closure of 10 mitral paravalvar leaks using eight Occlutech PLD occluders and two AMPLATZER Vascular Plugs (AVP II)...

The Bjork Shiley valve (BSV) is considered as the pioneer among modern disc valves, and eventually evolved into a reliable prosthesis after considerable research and multiple modifications. Various case reports have been published with follow-up of different types of BSV. We are reporting the longest follow-up ever published of a plano-convex type of BSV. Our patient's valve was implanted in 1973 due to a congenital bicuspid aortic valve with concomitant severe, symptomatic aortic stenosis, discovered at the age of 27...