[Myocobacterium tuberculosis endomyocarditis. Apropos of a case in a patient with a mitral valve prosthesis].

A case of lethal cardiac tuberculosis with myocardial and endocardial involvement is reported in a 46 year old man with a Starr-Edwards mitral valve prosthesis inserted two years previously for severe mitral regurgitation, secondary to ruptured chordae of the posterior mitral leaflet. Apart from tuberculous pericarditis, cardiac involvement is extremely rare; it occurs in "tuberculous septicemia" whose characteristic features--tuberculinic anergy, hematological abnormalities especially pancytopenia,--lead to delay in diagnosis, which is usually fatal. The case presented is an example.

[Severe aortic incompetence from dysplasia of the valve. A report on 19 cases of this real but often unrecognized disorder (author's transl)].

A total of 19 patients were found to have severe aortic incompetence from dysplasia of the valve (thin, spread-out valves having a tendency towards eversion). This type of valve abnormality is often unrecognized but is found in 13,6% of cases of severe aortic incompetence. The relationship between this condition and Marfan's syndrome or its aberrant forms are discussed, as well as its frequency when unrelated to this disease.