Skip Navigation


European Journal of Echocardiography Advance Access originally published online on December 13, 2008
European Journal of Echocardiography 2009 10(3):446-449; doi:10.1093/ejechocard/jen320
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Supplementary Data
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
10/3/446    most recent
jen320v2
jen320v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Cianciulli, T. F.
Right arrow Articles by Vidal, L. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Cianciulli, T. F.
Right arrow Articles by Vidal, L. A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2008. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Intermittent acute aortic regurgitation of a mechanical bileaflet aortic valve prosthesis: diagnosis and clinical implications

Tomás Francisco Cianciulli1,2,*, María Cristina Saccheri1,2, Jorge Alberto Lax1, Robert Guidoin3, Ze Zhang3, Juan E. Guerra1, Horacio Alberto Prezioso1 and Luis A. Vidal1

1 Department of Cardiology, Hospital del Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires ‘Dr. Cosme Argerich’, Pi y Margall 750 (C1155AHB), Buenos Aires, Argentina
2 Researchers of the Secretary of Health, Government of the City of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
3 Department of Surgery, Laval University, Quebec Biomaterials Institute, St François d'Assise Hospital, CHUQ, Quebec, Canada

Received 1 October 2008; accepted after revision 22 November 2008; online publish-ahead-of-print 13 December 2008.

* Corresponding author. Tel: +5411 4801 5510; fax: +5411 4801 4157. E-mail address: tcianciulli{at}fibertel.com.ar, tcianci{at}intramed.net.ar


  Abstract

Intermittent aortic regurgitation (AR) is an unusual complication after a mechanical prosthetic replacement. We describe a rare case of intermittent dysfunction of a bileaflet mechanical aortic prosthetic valve in a 41-year-old man with a 21 mm Tri-technologies prosthetic valve implanted 4 years before. Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) before discharge was normal and prosthesis–patient mismatch was ruled out. He was admitted to our hospital because of mild dyspnoea at effort. TTE revealed acute and severe intermittent AR. The patient underwent surgery, during which abnormal proliferation of subvalvular pannus overgrowth on the inflow aspect of the prosthesis was found impeding the normal closure of one of the discs of the prosthesis. The pannus formation was resected, the Tri-technologies prosthetic valve was prophylactic explanted and a 23 mm St Jude Medical bileaflet mechanical prosthesis valve was implanted. We describe the role of TTE and the limitation of the cinefluoroscopy in the diagnosis of Tri-technologies prosthetic dysfunction.

Keywords: Intermittent aortic regurgitation; Acute prosthetic valve dysfunction; Tri-technologies prosthesis valve; Transthoracic echocardiography; Cinefluoroscopy


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.