Use of Indigenous Decellularized Valved Xenograft Conduit for Double-Barrel Right Ventricular Outflow Tract Reconstruction: Nine-Year Follow-Up.

Over the last two decades, numerous conduit options and implantation techniques have been described for right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) reconstruction in the management of tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) with hypoplastic pulmonary annulus. The limited availability of homografts and the cost factor have led us to explore the use of decellularized xenografts as an alternative. Here we present a nine-year follow-up of an adult patient with TOF with hypoplastic pulmonary annulus, who underwent reconstruction of the RVOT by the double-barrel technique, using a decellularized porcine pulmonary artery xenograft valved conduit.

Single lung transplantation in India: an initial experience.

The science of lung transplantation has evolved from an experimental procedure, to be accepted as a legitimate mainstream therapy for patients with end-stage pulmonary disease. Now lung transplantation offers patients with end-stage lung disease acceptable quality of life and matches a 5-year survival rate of other solid organ transplants. In the present report, we present our initial experience in performing two single lung transplantations done in our centre.

Stem cell experiments and initial clinical trial of cellular cardiomyoplasty.

Growing myocardial cells from human stem cells and stem cell transplantation to repair injured myocardium are new frontiers in cardiovascular research. The 1st stage of this study was conducted to determine whether transplantation of autologous bone marrow stem cells into infarcted myocardium of sheep could differentiate into beating cardiomyocytes. The 2nd stage was to demonstrate transdifferentiation of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells to precursor cardiomyocytes in vitro, using a novel conditioning medium.

Takayasu's arteritis mimicking acute aortic dissection.

A 17-year-old girl presented with a history of dyspnea on exertion and fever of 1-week duration. She was evaluated elsewhere with transesophageal echocardiography and helical computed tomographic scan, and she had been diagnosed with an acute type I dissection of the aorta. She had also been diagnosed with severe aortic regurgitation and a suspected aortic root abscess.