Acute obstruction by Pannus in patients with aortic medtronic-hall valves: 30 years of experience.

Background: Acute dysfunction of mechanical aortic valve prostheses is a life-threatening adverse event. Pannus overgrowth, which is fibroelastic hyperplasia originating from the periannular area, is one cause of dysfunction. The aim of this study was to determine the annual incidence of readmittance resulting from acute obstruction caused by pannus during 30 years of observation in patients with Medtronic-Hall aortic valve prostheses and to analyze the risk factors associated with pannus development.

Aortic annulus diameter and valve design each determine the valve size implanted.

Background And Aim Of The Study: The study aim was to compare the sizing characteristics and hemodynamics of the Medtronic Mosaic Ultra porcine and Carpentier-Edwards PERIMOUNT Magna bovine pericardial bioprosthetic stented aortic valves in relation to the patient's true aortic annulus size.

Methods: In this prospective multicenter randomized study, data acquired perioperatively and at six months postoperatively were collected. Following aortic valve excision and debridement, the annulus was measured by blinded sizers prior to the randomization of 141 patients (Ultra, n=72; Magna, n=69).

Relative survival after CABG surgery is poorer in women and in patients younger than 70 years at surgery.

Objective: The difference in survival between genders after coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) have been studied with varying results. We wanted to investigate gender and age specific relative survival in the CABG population. Risk factors increasing hazard of death in female patients were isolated.

Patient-reported outcomes as predictors of 10-year survival in women after acute myocardial infarction.

Background: Patient-reported outcomes are increasingly seen as complementary to biomedical measures. However, their prognostic importance has yet to be established, particularly in female long-term myocardial infarction (MI) survivors. We aimed to determine whether 10-year survival in older women after MI relates to patient-reported outcomes, and to compare their survival with that of the general female population.

Myocardial deformation in aortic valve stenosis: relation to left ventricular geometry.

Objective: To assess left ventricular (LV) strain and displacement and their relations to LV geometry in patients with aortic stenosis (AS).

Design: Cross-sectional echocardiographic study in patients with AS. Peak circumferential, radial and longitudinal strain, and radial, longitudinal and transverse displacement were measured by 2D speckle tracking.

Esmolol before 80 min of cardiac arrest with oxygenated cold blood cardioplegia alleviates systolic dysfunction. An experimental study in pigs.

Objective: Myocardial dysfunction after reperfusion can be a clinical problem in the early postoperative phase after on-pump cardiac surgery. The aim was, in an experimental setting, to investigate if administration of the beta-adrenergic receptor blocker esmolol prior to cross-clamping for 80 min with cold oxygenated blood cardioplegia would improve myocardial protection and early postoperative function.

Methods: Twenty-four anaesthetised pigs were randomly allocated into one of two equally sized groups and put on mild hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass.

Impact of hypertension on left ventricular hypertrophy regression and exercise capacity in patients operated for aortic valve stenosis.

Objectives: To assess the influence of concomitant hypertension on left ventricular hypertrophy regression and exercise capacity in patients operated for aortic stenosis.

Design: We performed echocardiography 1 week, 6- and 18-month postoperatively in 78 patients, aged 70 (28-86) years, who received Medtronic Hall (33), Biocor (8), Carpentier-Edwards S.A.

The female gender has a positive effect on survival independent of background life expectancy following surgical resection of primary non-small cell lung cancer: a study of absolute and relative survival over 15 years.

Surgical resection is the treatment of choice for non-advanced lung cancer, but is encumbered with an overall relative poor long time prognosis. The purpose of this study was to examine if long time survival for patients operated for non-small cell lung cancer have changed over a 15 years period. We retrospectively studied hospital records of the 351 patients operated, with the intention to cure, for a primary non-small cell carcinoma (NSCLC) in our department between 1 January 1988 and 31 December 2002.

Exercise capacity in young adults with hypertension and systolic blood pressure difference between right arm and leg after repair of coarctation of the aorta.

Coarctation of the aorta represents 5-7% of congenital heart defects. Symptoms and prognosis depend on the degree of stenosis, age at surgery, surgical method and the presence of other heart defects. Postoperative complications are hypertension, restenosis and an abnormal blood pressure response during exercise.

An anaesthetic protocol in the young domestic pig allowing neuromuscular blockade for studies of cardiac function following cardioplegic arrest and cardiopulmonary bypass.

Background: Neuromuscular blockade should, for ethical reasons, not be allowed in animal experiments unless the use is strongly motivated. Beforehand, the anaesthetic protocol must be documented without muscle relaxation in the species studied. Documentation is difficult to obtain from the scientific literature.

Immediate control of life-threatening digoxin intoxication in a child by use of digoxin-specific antibody fragments (Fab).

Digoxin-immune antibody fragments (Fab) for treatment of digitalis intoxication was introduced in 1976. Many reports have been published concerning this therapy for children, but few have focused on its immediate reversal of cardiac as well as extracardiac life-threatening manifestations of digoxin toxicity. We present a case of life-threatening digitalis intoxication in a child with postoperative renal insufficiency, after a Sennings procedure for transposition of the great arteries.

Magnetic resonance imaging of patients with increased blood pressure and altered blood pressure response to exercise after coarctation repair.

Objective: Patients successfully operated for coarctation of the aorta are frequently subjected to altered blood pressure (BP) at rest and BP response during exercise. The relationship between these variables and blood flow, peak velocity, restenosis and other morphological features of the thoracic aorta as revealed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was evaluated.

Design: Fifty-one patients subjected to coarctectomy of the aorta were examined by MRI.

Preoperative hair removal--a systematic literature review.

This article describes a systematic literature review on whether, how, and when to perform preoperative hair removal. By searching electronic databases and reference lists of relevant articles, team members identified 20 clinical studies that deal with preoperative hair removal. No strong evidence was found to advocate against preoperative hair removal.

Rewarming from accidental hypothermia by extracorporeal circulation. A retrospective study.

Objective: Twenty-six patients with accidental hypothermia combined with circulatory arrest or severe circulatory failure were rewarmed to normothermia by use of extracorporeal circulation (ECC). The aim of the present study was to evaluate our results.

Patients And Methods: The treatment of six female and 20 male patients (median age: 26.

Velocity distribution in the ascending aorta in pigs during chronotropic and inotropic stimulation.

The influence of heart rate, stroke volume and myocardial contractility on temporal and spatial velocity distribution in the ascending aorta was investigated in 10 pigs. A pulsed Doppler ultrasound technique with intraluminal probe and a single crystal connected to a position-sensitive device was used to measure blood velocity. After baseline registration, the heart rate was increased in two discrete steps of 20 beats/min by right atrial pacing.

[Patients surgically treated for aortic coarctation].

The aim of this study was to evaluate the results of surgical treatment of coarctation of the aorta. All patient files on patients operated at Haukeland Hospital, Bergen, Norway, in the period 1975-95 (n = 102) were surveyed. We sent a questionnaire to all patients alive in 1996 (n = 84), and 82 (98%) responded.

Cardiac arrest due to massive pulmonary embolism following caesarean section. Successful resuscitation and pulmonary embolectomy.

A woman developed pulmonary embolism with cardiac arrest after caesarean section. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed for 45 min during which echocardiography showed right ventricular dilatation. After stabilization, but still in a critical condition, the patient was transferred by airambulance to a hospital with facilities for extracorporeal circulation.

Three-dimensional cross-sectional velocity distribution in the ascending aorta in cardiac patients.

Knowledge of the distribution of velocities across the ascending aorta is important for measurements of cardiac output; for understanding the function of normal and diseased valves and for the evaluation of prosthetic valves. The aim of this study was to investigate, in detail, the spatial distribution of axial velocities in the human ascending aorta, covering a nearly complete cross-section of the lumen in a time continuous modus. During open-heart surgery, blood velocities in the ascending aorta were mapped in 10 patients.

Haemodynamic effects of high-dose vecuronium compared with pancuronium in beta-blocked patients with coronary artery disease during fentanyl-diazepam-nitrous oxide anaesthesia.

Background: Different combinations of neuromuscular blockers and opioids have been used in patients with angina pectoris to provide cardiovascular stability and reduce risk of myocardial ischaemia during anaesthesia.

Methods: We have compared the haemodynamic effects of high-dose vecuronium (0.3 mg kg-1) with those of a standard dose of pancuronium (0.