[Aortic valve replacement with stentless bioprosthesis].

Aim: To evaluate prospectively the hemodynamic performance of «BioLAB Mono» stentless bioprosthesis implanted into aortic position.

Material And Methods: Twenty seven patients (mean age 71 (67; 73); 17 women) with severe aortic stenosis underwent aortic valve replacement with «BioLAB Mono» stentless bioprosthesis from 2012 to 2014. The valves were implanted into supra-annular position using continuous polypropylene suture.

Early echocardiographic manifestations of primary chronic septic endocarditis.

Echocardiographic manifestations of the early stages of primary chronic septic endocarditis are studied in patients with mono-, bi-, and multivalvular valvulitis. The basic morphological substrate of the disease is fibrosis; the main trend is progressive fibrosis of valvular and extravalvular endocardial structures leading in many cases to stenosis of the valvular orifices. The results in some cases do not permit us to regard fibrosis as a result of previous "healed" endocarditis ruling out the presence of an inflammatory process.

Levosimendan vs. intra-aortic balloon pump in high-risk cardiac surgery.

The purpose of our study was to compare the efficiency of levosimendan and preventive intra-aortic balloon pump in high-risk cardiac patients (left ventricular ejection fraction <35%) operated under cardiopulmonary bypass. In 20 patients, intra-aortic balloon pump was started 16-18 h before surgery; another 20 had a levosimendan infusion starting after induction of anesthesia with an initial bolus of 12 μg·kg(-1) for 10 min, followed by 0.1 μg·kg(-1)·min(-1) for 24 h.

Laser Doppler flowmetry assessment of microcirculation in upper extremities before and in long-term period after harvesting of radial artery.

Radial artery (RA) is rather commonly used as a graft for autoarterial myocardial revascularization. Consequences of RA harvesting for the development of ischemic disturbances in distal hand segments are poorly understood. The paper presents assessment of hand microcirculation (HMC) before and in late postoperative period after RA harvesting with modern precise diagnostic method - laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF).