[Expression of mineralocorticoid receptor and 11-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 in human atria during chronic atrial fibrillation: study of 25 cases].

Objective: To investigate the mRNA and protein expression of mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) and 11-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 (11betaHSD2), which plays a crucial role in the human heart to confer specificity on MR, in patients with chronic atrial fibrillation.

Methods: Twenty-five patients of rheumatic heart valve disease, 12 with sinus rhythm, and 13 with chronic atrial fibrillation for 6 months or over, underwent transthoracic echocardiography and mitral/aortic valve replacement operation during which right atrial lateral wall tissue samples were obtained and left atrial lateral wall tissue samples were obtained from 14 of them in addition. Realtime quantitative PCR was used to determine the mRNA expression of MR and 11betaHSD2 and Western blotting was employed to detect the protein expression of MR and 11betaHSD2 in the atrial myocardium.

Primary triple valve surgery for advanced rheumatic heart disease in Mainland China: a single-center experience with 871 clinical cases.

Background: Triple valve surgery (TVS) is still of choice for advanced rheumatic heart disease (RHD), which has been associated with reported poor early and late outcomes. We describe the short- and long-term results after TVS in last two decades in Mainland China.

Methods: From January 1985 to January 2005, a total of 871 patients (217 men, 654 women), with mean age of 42+/-11 years, underwent primary TVS for isolated advanced RHD.

[Surgical interventions for complex native valve endocarditis].

Objective: To elucidate the early and long-term results of surgical treatment for complex infective endocarditis with prosthetic valve replacement.

Methods: Fifty-seven patients of complex native valve endocarditis, including 25 cases of aortic valve, 16 of mitral valve and 16 of double valves, who underwent operative interventions with prosthetic valve replacement between December 1988 and June 2002, were analyzed retrospectively. Intraoperative findings demonstrated aortic annular abscesses (n = 19), root abscesses (n = 4), mitral posterior annular abscesses (n = 11), myocardial abscesses (n = 6), massive leaflet destruction (n = 32) and valvular vegetations (n = 55).

[Long-term results of prosthetic mitral valve replacement with home-made tilting disc valve: a report of 125 cases].

Objective: To analyze the early and long-term results after mitral valve replacement for rheumatic valvular disease by using home-made tilting disc valve, and the determinant factors involved and subsequent therapies.

Methods: One hundred and five patients, including 31 patients with rheumatic mitral stenosis, 92 patients with mixed mitral stenosis and regurgitation, and 2 patients with bacterial endocarditis, underwent prosthetic mitral valve replacement with home-made tilting disc valve from September 1978 to June 1982. Three patients had a history of mitral commissurotomy, and 5 patients had concomitant functional tricuspid regurgitation.

[Congenital coronary artery fistulae in adults: diagnosis and surgical treatment].

Objective: To summarize the clinical characteristics, diagnosis and surgical in-treatment results of congenital coronary artery fistulas (CAF) in adults.

Methods: Fourteen patients (8 men, 6 women), aged from 18 to 60 years with a mean of 32 +/- 13 years, underwent surgical correction of CAF between March 1985 and April 2002. Eleven of the 14 patients (78.