Comparison of modes of failure and clinical outcomes between explanted porcine and bovine pericardial bioprosthetic valves.

Objective: To compare pathological and hemodynamic modes of failure and operative outcomes between explanted porcine and bovine pericardial bioprosthetic valves.

Methods: Patients who underwent explantation of their bioprosthetic valves at Toronto General Hospital from 2007 to 2019 were identified. Retrospective chart review was conducted to attain demographic information, operative outcomes, and echocardiography and pathology reports.

Valve-in-valve prosthesis-late morphological findings.

Since its implantation in 2002, transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has become the preferred intervention for patients with severe aortic stenosis and significant co-morbidities. In 2007, it was adopted as a rescue procedure for failed bioprosthetic valves, now known as the valve-in-valve (VIV) procedure. Unlike other modes of treatment with a multitude of phase 4 post-marketing surveillance (PMS) data, use of these valves have increased rapidly even without long term durability data on this procedure and the near lack of information on the pathology of failed transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) bioprosthesis and especially after the VIV procedure.

Biomechanics of Aortic Dissection: A Comparison of Aortas Associated With Bicuspid and Tricuspid Aortic Valves.

Background Current methods for aortic dissection risk assessment are inadequate for patients with ascending aortic aneurysms associated with either bicuspid aortic valves (BAVs) or tricuspid aortic valves (TAVs). Biomechanical testing of aortic tissue may provide novel insights and biomarkers. Methods and Results From March 2017 to August 2019, aneurysmal ascending aortas (BAV=23, TAV=23) were collected from elective aortic surgery, normal aortas from transplant donors (n=9), and dissected aortas from surgery for aortic dissection (n=7).

A calcified chronic total occlusion preclinical model.

Objective: To create an experimental chronic total occlusion (CTO) model with calcification by dietary modification (cholesterol, calcium carbonate, vitamin D) and local injection of pro-calcification factors (dipotassium phosphate, calcium chloride, and bone morphogenetic protein-2 [BMP-2]).

Background: Percutaneous revascularization of CTOs frequently fails in heavily calcified occlusions. Development of novel approaches requires a reproducible preclinical model of calcified CTO.

Lipomatous hypertrophy of the interatrial septum is a pathologic, not an anatomic diagnosis.

Background And Aim: Lipomatous hypertrophy of the interatrial septum (LHIS), a fatty tumor, is usually diagnosed on both echo and CT/MRI imaging. Cases of LHIS located outside of the interatrial septum are extremely rare and rarer still are these cases large enough to cause symptoms. The clinical literature demonstrates a misunderstanding that fatty tumors outside the intra-atrial area represent lipomas.