Long-term results after reconstruction of a new annulus in heavily calcified mitral annulus.

Background And Aim Of The Study: In 2009 our group described a new surgical technique for patients with severe mitral valve calcification undergoing mitral valve surgery. This technique creates a new mitral annulus with plication of the mitral leaflet and the atrial wall. Our objective is to report the long-term results of the experience at our institution.

Building a new annulus: a technique for mitral valve replacement in heavily calcified annulus.

We describe the rationale, methodology, and our preliminary experience with a new surgical technique for mitral valve replacement in patients with severe calcification of the mitral annulus in which the conventional techniques can not be applied. In contrast with other procedures published in the literature for these patients, in which the placement of the prosthesis is supra-annular, we plicate both mitral leaflets and the atrial wall creating a new annulus that allows the intra-annular placement of the prosthesis.

Analysis of inflammatory response and utility of N-terminal pro brain-type natriuretic peptide in cardiac surgery with extracorporeal circulation.

Objectives: Cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) elicits an inflammatory response. During and after cardiac surgery, we examined the pattern of cytokine release of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, to investigate inflammatory response. We analyzed N-terminal pro brain-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) as a marker of ventricular function.

Plasma troponins as markers of myocardial damage during cardiac surgery with extracorporeal circulation.

All types of cardiac surgery involve considerable injury to the myocardium. However, it is difficult to differentiate, in the immediate post-operative state, between ischemic alterations associated with the cardiac surgery itself and the pathological alterations of a peri-operative myocardial infarction. The diagnosis of damaged myocardium, classically performed with the enzymatic markers creatine kinase (CK) and its muscle fraction (CK-MB), has become more precise with the option of measuring cardiac troponins T and I.