• T Z Naqvi, R J Siegel, N A Buchbinder, and M C Fishbein.
• Department of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California 90048, USA.
• J Am Soc Echocardiogr. 1998 Jul 1; 11 (7): 720-8.

AbstractThe aim of this study was to define the clinical, echocardiographic, and pathologic correlates of commissural dehiscence of aortic wall from the stent post of the porcine bioprostheses in the mitral position. This form of valve degeneration was found in 5 of 23 explanted mitral bioprostheses. A thickened, separated aortic wall at multiple commissural sites along with other evidence of valve degeneration was identified in the three patients who had chronic congestive heart failure. A large dehiscence at a single commissural site with otherwise normal valve morphology was present in the two patients who had acute heart failure. Two dimensional/Doppler echocardiography showed a prolapsing or a flail anteriorly positioned leaflet and an eccentric posteriorly directed mitral regurgitation jet in all patients. These echocardiographic findings in patients with a porcine bioprosthetic mitral valve should suggest commissural dehiscence from the aortic wall as a possible mechanism of valve failure. Exclusive involvement of the porcine aortic bioprosthesis placed in the mitral position along with involvement of strut of the bioprosthesis facing the aortic root in all cases suggests excessive hemodynamic stress on the valve in the mitral position and in particular on the anteriorly placed strut as the potential cause of this form of valve degeneration.

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