Rev Esp Cardiol
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The development of left ventricular dysfunction after mitral valve replacement is a common problem in patients with chronic severe mitral regurgitation. Assessment of myocardial deformation enables myocardial contractility to be accurately estimated. Our aim was to compare the value of the preoperative strain and strain rate derived by either speckle-tracking echocardiography or tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) for predicting the medium-term decrease in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) following surgery. ⋯ Speckle-tracking echocardiography can be used to predict a decrease in LVEF over the medium term after mitral valve replacement. Moreover, the predictive accuracy of speckle-tracking echocardiography was greater than that of TDI.
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To investigate the prevalence, causes and outcome of catheterization laboratory false alarms (CLFAs) in a regional primary angioplasty network. ⋯ The prevalence of CLFAs was 7.2%, with the criterion of no culprit coronary lesion. Our findings suggest that different patterns of referral to catheterization laboratories could account for small variations in the prevalence of CLFAs.
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Degenerative aortic stenosis is the most common valvulopathy in Europe. In symptomatic patients, aortic valve replacement with a prosthesis substantially improves prognosis. However, a high percentage of candidates for valve replacement surgery are rejected because of the high risk of serious complications. ⋯ These developments could lead to an increase in the number of interventions carried out in high-risk patients as the positive effect of treatment on prognosis would be retained while the complication rate would be reduced. We describe the use of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) for intraoperative monitoring in 21 patients who underwent transcatheter aortic valve replacement using an transapical approach, and report morphologic findings, hemodynamic results, and complications observed. We propose a standard approach to imaging, in which real-time three-dimensional TEE is used to provide additional information during intraoperative monitoring of transapical transcatheter aortic valve replacement.
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Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Percutaneous implantation of the CoreValve self-expanding aortic valve prosthesis in patients with severe aortic stenosis: early experience in Spain.
The aim of the study was to describe early experience and medium-term follow-up with the CoreValve self-expanding aortic prosthesis at three Spanish hospitals. ⋯ Our early experience indicates that percutaneous aortic valve replacement is a safe and practical therapeutic option for patients with severe aortic stenosis who are at a high surgical risk.