Early and Late Outcomes After Complete Aortic Replacement.

Background: The purpose of this report was to analyze our experience with total aortic replacement during a 20-year period.

Methods: Between 1991 and 2013, 3,012 repairs of the aortic root, ascending, transverse arch, and thoracoabdominal aorta were performed. Of these, we treated 39 patients with complete aortic replacement.

Outcomes of open repair for chronic descending thoracic aortic dissection.

Background: This study analyzed early and late outcomes after open repair of descending thoracic aortic aneurysms with chronic aortic dissection.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed our cases of open repair of descending thoracic aortic aneurysms with chronic dissection from 1991 to 2011. Patient comorbid conditions and operative details were analyzed to determine risks for adverse outcome.

Abciximab administration and clinical outcomes after percutaneous intervention for in-stent restenosis.

Abciximab therapy improves clinical outcomes after percutaneous interventions for de novo coronary artery disease. We sought to determine whether clinical outcomes after percutaneous intervention for in-stent restenosis are affected by abciximab administration. Between January 1996 and July 1999, 322 consecutive patients underwent percutaneous intervention for in-stent restenosis; 157 patients received abciximab and 165 patients were treated without abciximab based on operator discretion.

Isolated acute anterolateral papillary muscle rupture presenting as a sole manifestation of acute myocardial infarction and mimicking mitral valve vegetation.

We present here a case of an acute myocardial infarction presenting solely as rupture of the head of anterolateral papillary muscle of the mitral valve with an echocardiographic appearance of a mitral valve vegetation. A 61-year-old male patient presented to the hospital with cardiogenic shock. Transesophageal echocardiography revealed normal left ventricular global and regional systolic function with the echocardiographic appearance of a large vegetation attached to the anterior mitral valve leaflet and severe mitral regurgitation.

Interrogation of the tricuspid annulus by Doppler tissue imaging in patients with chronic pulmonary hypertension: implications for the assessment of right-ventricular systolic and diastolic function.

Background: Chronic pulmonary hypertension (CPHT) has a great impact on both right-ventricular (RV) systolic and diastolic properties and the assessment of those properties is not always feasible by traditional echocardiographic examination. Doppler tissue imaging (DTI) interrogation of the tricuspid annulus (TA) identifies the pattern of TA motion (TAM) and can help to assess RV function when other methods are not feasible.

Aims: To determine RV systolic and diastolic function in patients with CPHT using DTI parameters of the TA.

Echocardiographic evaluation of left-ventricular diastolic function in patients with chronic pulmonary hypertension.

Different patterns of left-ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction were reported in patients with pulmonary hypertension (PHT). There are no data regarding the relationship between the severity of PHT and LV diastolic dysfunction. In order to determine the severity of PHT at which LV diastolic dysfunction occurs and to identify its pattern, we studied by Doppler echocardiography 120 patients with PHT (57 with severe PHT and 63 with mild or moderate PHT) and compared them with 75 normal controls.

Revascularization interventions for ischemic heart disease.

Coronary artery bypass grafting and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty are now well established methods of myocardial revascularization. The choice of a method of revascularization depends on several clinical and angiographic parameters. Patients who derive the greatest benefit from coronary artery bypass grafting are those with left main coronary artery disease or those with three-vessel disease with left ventricular impairment.