Aortic valve Replacement compared to Transcatheter Implant and its relationship with COgnitive Impairment (ARTICO) evaluated with neuropsychological and advanced neuroimaging: a longitudinal cohort study.

Background: Aortic stenosis is the most common valvulopathy in Western countries. The treatment of choice had been surgery aortic valve replacement (SAVR), but the improvement in endovascular approaches as transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), initially reserved for patients with very high surgical risk, has been extended to high and intermediate, and recently also to low-risk patients. Stroke and vascular cognitive impairment are the most important complications.

Influence of Strict Lockdown on Vitamin D Deficiency in Pregnant Women: A Word of Caution.

The main source of vitamin D results from skin sunlight exposure. Vitamin D deficiency (VDD) is linked to several adverse events during pregnancy. While performing a cross-sectional study with 886 pregnant women in Elda (Spain) from September 2019 to July 2020 to determine the association of VDD with gestational diabetes mellitus in relation to body mass index, a strict lockdown (SL) due to the COVID-19 pandemic was declared from 15 March 2020 to 15 May 2020.

Thoracoscopic segmentectomy versus lobectomy: A propensity score-matched analysis.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to compare the postoperative complications, perioperative course, and survival among patients from the multicentric Spanish Video-assisted Thoracic Surgery Group database who received video-assisted thoracic surgery lobectomy or video-assisted thoracic surgery anatomic segmentectomy.

Methods: From December 2016 to March 2018, a total of 2250 patients were collected from 33 centers. Overall analysis (video-assisted thoracic surgery lobectomy = 2070; video-assisted thoracic surgery anatomic segmentectomy = 180) and propensity score-matched adjusted analysis (video-assisted thoracic surgery lobectomy = 97; video-assisted thoracic surgery anatomic segmentectomy = 97) were performed to compare postoperative results.

Life expectancy after surgical aortic valve replacement for low-gradient aortic stenosis with preserved ejection fraction.

Introduction And Objectives: Surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) can modify the natural history of severe aortic stenosis (SAS). However, compared with the general population, these patients have a loss of life expectancy. The life expectancy of patients who undergo SAVR due to low-gradient SAS with preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is unknown.

Life expectancy after aortic valve replacement in young patients.

Introduction And Objectives: In young patients with severe aortic stenosis, it is unknown whether their life expectancy restored after aortic valve replacement (AVR) is unknown.

Methods: We analyzed all patients aged between 50 and 65 years who underwent isolated AVR in 27 Spanish centers during an 18-year period. We compared observed and expected survival at 15 years of follow-up.

Differences in life expectancy between men and women after aortic valve replacement.

Objectives: Some researchers have observed an increased number of deaths during the follow-up of young patients who undergo aortic valve replacement due to severe aortic stenosis, suggesting that this procedure does not restore their life expectancy. Our goal was to confirm these findings and explore sex-based differences.

Methods: All patients between 50 and 65 years of age who underwent isolated aortic valve replacement in 27 Spanish centres during an 18-year period were included.

Validation and quality measurements for EuroSCORE and EuroSCORE II in the Spanish cardiac surgical population: a prospective, multicentre study.

Objectives: Since its development in the late 1990s, the European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation (EuroSCORE) has been the predictive model of choice for estimating mortality after cardiac surgery. As outcomes from cardiac surgery improved, the EuroSCORE showed a loss of calibration, and a revised version of the model was developed, EuroSCORE II. The objectives of this study were to examine the validity of both scores in the Spanish population, and to depict the performance of both models on a funnel plot.

Anatomic aspects of the atrioventricular junction influencing radiofrequency Cox maze IV procedures.

Objective: This study analyzes the anatomic structure of the mitral and tricuspid annuli, their relationship with the coronary arteries and veins, and how this anatomic distribution may affect atrial ablation with bipolar radiofrequency clamps, the only technology that ensures transmurality.

Methods: Nine explanted fresh human hearts were studied, two of them with left coronary dominance. Two types of bipolar radiofrequency clamps were positioned to reach the mitral and tricuspid annuli, and relationships within the atrioventricular junction were analyzed, including coronary sinus and coronary arteries.

Device migration in hybrid technique for apical muscular ventricular septal defects closure.

Muscular ventricular septal defects still require complex surgical procedures for their repair. We have used a hybrid approach for closure of these ventricular septal defects in patients needing open-heart surgery. It consists of the deployment of a ventricular septal occluder, as used in transcatheter procedures inside the defect under direct vision after cardiopulmonary bypass establishment.

One-step surgical approach of a thoracic aortic aneurysm in Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome.

Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome is a primary immunodeficiency characterized by infections, thrombocytopenia, and eczema. We present a 33-year-old man with this syndrome who underwent a one-stage ascending aorta, aortic arch and descending aortic aneurysm repair under moderate hypothermia and continuous visceral and cerebral perfusion. Histologic examination showed the presence of an aortitis with granulomatous inflammatory response and multinucleated cells.