[Aortic Valve Replacement after Balloon Valvuloplasty for Aortic Valve Stenosis in a Dialysis Patient with Cardiogenic Shock;Report of a Case].

A 67-year-old man on chronic hemodialysis was admitted with worsening congestive heart failure due to critical aortic stenosis. Echocardiography showed severe aortic stenosis with a valve area of 0.67 cm2 and an ejection fraction of 0.

Persistent eosinophilic infiltration of the myocardium in a child in complete remission of acute lymphoblastic leukemia and eosinophilia. Potential role in late cardiac disease?

This report describes the long-term (23 years) follow-up of a pediatric patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and eosinophilia who underwent multiple valve replacements. An 8-year-old boy with this complex disease was admitted in January 1984 and treated with 6-week course of vincristine, L-asparaginase, and prednisolone, which induced complete remission. He developed atrioventricular valvular insufficiency and infectious endocarditis at 13.

Mycotic aneurysm of the descending aorta with hemoptysis.

Mycotic aneurysm of the descending aorta is usually described as rare. We present two recent cases of mycotic aneurysm of the descending aorta complicated with hemoptysis. Urgent tube graft replacements were successfully performed under cardiopulmonary bypass support.

Risks and benefits of bilateral internal thoracic artery grafting in diabetic patients.

Background: There is a tendency to avoid the bilateral internal thoracic artery (ITA) grafting in diabetics. However, we no longer consider diabetes a reason for excluding the bilateral use of ITAs. We compare the early and long-term results in diabetic cases treated by coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) using unilateral and bilateral ITA grafts.

Routine extended graft replacement for an acute type A aortic dissection and the patency of the residual false channel.

Background: Recent surgical progress has had an impact on the mortality of acute type A aortic dissection. Routine aortic arch replacement, irrespective of the location of the intimal tears, may improve not only the outcome of the residual dissection but the operative mortality, because complete resection of intimal tears, including those invisible through the aortotomy in the ascending aorta is achieved.

Methods: During the past 7 years, total aortic arch replacement was performed in 50 consecutive patients with acute type A aortic dissection.

Extended use of bilateral internal thoracic arteries for coronary artery bypass grafting in the elderly.

Objective: Internal thoracic artery (ITA) grafts provide better early and long-term patency than saphenous vein (SV) grafts. Furthermore, bilateral ITA grafting has recently demonstrated better long-term results than unilateral ITA grafting. However, its use in the elderly is controversial.

Cardioscopic guidance of linear lesion creation for radiofrequency ablation.

Background: The broad use of catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation is limited by the difficulty inherent in creating transmural linear lesions under fluoroscopy. Therefore, we evaluated cardioscopy as a more accurate method of guiding the catheter for the placement of linear lesions.

Methods: Nineteen swine underwent endocardial ablation to create linear conduction block lesions in the right atrium under cardioscopy (group I, n = 13) or fluoroscopy (group II, n = 6).

Feasibility and suitability of the routine use of bilateral internal thoracic arteries.

Background: It has been demonstrated that bilateral use of internal thoracic arteries (ITAs) confers better long-term results in patients than does unilateral use. However, routine use of bilateral ITAs has usually been avoided.

Methods: Since 1997, we have used bilateral ITAs extensively for patients who required multivessel bypasses.