[Analysis of results of surgical treatment of patients with infectious endocarditis].

The results of surgical treatment of 180 patients were studied according to the character of infectious endocarditis (primary--PIE and secondary--SIE), the functional class (FC) in the preoperative period, and the patients' immune status. The survival of patients with PIE (with hospital mortality taken into account) was somewhat higher than that of patients with SIE. Survival in the late-term periods was significantly higher in patients with PIE.

[Hemodynamic effect of a mitral valve prosthesis].

Hemodynamic findings are analysed in 113 patients with different types of mitral prosthesis. Catheterization of the heart was carried out before the operation and during the late post-operative period. The gradient through the prosthesis was estimated for patients with different types of mitral valve prosthesis during the operation.

[Diagnosis of acute pulmonary artery embolism].

The clinical picture and the electrocardiographic and rheopneumographic findings were compared with the data obtained during operation or angiopneumography in 31 patients with embolism of the pulmonary artery. In massive embolism of the pulmonary artery, the dominating clinical symptoms were sudden dyspnea, tachycardia and cyanosis. Collapse and cardiac arrest were encountered in most patients.

[Diagnosis of paravalvular fistulae after mitral valve prosthesis].

The phonocardiography method is appraised and the correlative dependence of the data yielded by it is compared with the hemodynamic values in the diagnosis of paravalvular fistulas following mitral valve prosthetics in 11 patients. It was revealed that the duration of the interval from the sound of aortic closure to the sound of mitral opening is in close reverse relation (r = -0.61) with the level of the mean pulmonary-capillary pressure: the shorter the interval, the more severe is the disorder of hemodynamics in patients with paravalvular mitral insufficiency and the higher is the mean pulmonary-capillary pressure.

[Remote results of multivalvular prostheses in patients with acquired heart defects].

The authors examined remote results in 57 patients who had had multivalvular prostheses placed: 35-with mitral and tricuspid valve prostheses, 10-with mitral and aortic valves and 3-with replacement of all 3 valves. Observation period lasted from 3 months to 5 years. Positive results were seen in 42 patients (73.