• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.40 no.11
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• pp.770-772
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• 2007

Papillary fibroelastoma is a rare benign tumor of the heart. A 21-year-old man presented with dyspnea on exertion and echocardiogram showed a small round mass attached to the anterolateral papillary muscle. After excision of the mass, including anterior papillary muscle, chordae tendinae, and anterior leaflet, he underwent mitral valve re-placement with a mechanical valve. He was discharged on anticoagulant therapy without further problems.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.670-676
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• 1997

The structural failure of the glutaraldehyde-treated xenograft valves has been the primary concern about the limited durability as predicted from the begimling of clinical use, and long-term follow-up has shown a significant incidence of primary tissue failure(PTF) from both biological and mechanical reasons. Twenty-seven patients with the low-profile lonescu-Shiley valves explanted from mitral position for PTF(Group III) were studied on the patient characteristics and valve pathology, and the results were compared with the matched observations of the Haycock(Group I) and of the standard-profile lonesiu-Shiley valves(Group II). Patients were aged 16 to 56 years(mean, 38.0$\pm$ 11.0 years), and the size of the failed mitral bioprosthesis was 30.8$\pm$ 1.3 mm. The hemodynamic consequences were stenosis in 29.6%, insufficiency in 44.4%, mixed steno-insufficiency in 14.8%, together with normal function for the rest of patients of prophylactic re-replacement. Pathology revealed calcification with or without tissue damage in 63.0% and tissue damage with or without calcification in 58.l%, in contrast with the observations of predominant tissue damage(76.8%) over calcification in Group I and of calcification(76.1%) over tissue damage in group II. Although dystrophic calcification has long and repeatedly dealt with patient's young age as a determinant of valve durability, such a characteristic evidence was not reached even in patients with calcified valves. Moreover, the prolonged explantation p riods from the studied on the previous report suggested strongly yet possibly evolving destructive processes among the valves in the remaining patients, and awaits further follow-up. In conclusion, PTF of the xenograft valves seems to result from more complicated biologic and metabolic reasons as well as more complex mecharical factors than the reported, and newer generation prostheses, with tissue preservation with glutaraldehyde, do not likely to provide decisive improvement in the occurrence of structural failurebioprostheses is generally limited to the highly aged.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.619-629
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• 1988

The increasing number of replacement of the substitute cardiac valves were seen in these 2 years. Out of a total 1,408 patients with cardiac valve replacement, 54 required replacement of the substitute valves. Fifty-nine substitute valves replaced were 43 in mitral, 14 in aortic and 2 in tricuspid positions; and they were 36 Ionescu-Shiley, 15 Hancock and 3 Angell-Shiley bioprosthetic valves and 3 St. Jude Medical and 2 Bjork-Shiley prosthetic valves. Primary tissue failure was the most frequent reason of replacement[38 patients] followed by paravalvular leak[9 patients], prosthetic valve endocarditis[6 patients] and valve thrombosis[1 patient] in order. The most pronounced pathology of the failed xenograft valves seen in the primary tissue failure group was calcification and fixation of the cusps with or without tear and defect of the cuspal tissue. The operative mortality rate was 7.4%. Fifty early survivors were followed up for a total of 82.6 patient-years and there was no late death. Actuarial survival rate was 92.3*3.8% at 6 years after surgery. Although the definite tendency toward early and accelerated degeneration of the xenograft valves has been seen in patients younger than 20 to 25 years of age, no strict age limit from where the tissue failure slows down could be determined. The requirement of the ideal substitute valves would be the durability of the recently developed mechanical prostheses armed with the low thrombogenicity of the bioprostheses. At the present time, the need of compromise in selection between less thrombogenic bioprosthetic and more durable mechanical valves should be stressed. The difficulty in choice is yet important in patients of middle age and children where the use of homograft valves may be one of the solution despite of certain limitations from sociomedical reasons.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.213-217
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• 2017

A 1-year and 8-month-old male, thoroughbred horse showed fever ($39.8^{\circ}C$), cardiac murmur, tachycardia up to 80 beats/min, anorexia, depression and lameness for about 2 months. The dead horse was referred to pathology laboratory at the College of Veterinary Medicine in Jeju National University. At necropsy, Severe protruding multiple rough cauliflower-like yellowish red nodules ranged $5{\sim}6{\times}2{\sim}3cm$ in size were attached on the mitral valve of the left heart. A yellowish red long stick-shaped thrombus $15{\times}3.5{\times}1.5cm$ in size was also present inside the right ventricle. Multifocal infarcts were scattered in the myocardium and renal cortex. Histopathologic examination revealed that morphologic diagnosis were vegetative endocarditis, thrombus in right ventricle, infarcts in myocardium and kidney, pulmonary congestion and edema, and splenic congestion. The isolated bacteria from vegetative lesions and thrombus were confirmed as Escherichia (E.) coli based on the bacterial culture and VITEK 2 system. Based on the gross and histopathologic features, and bacterial test, this case was diagnosed as vegetative endocarditis with thrombus formation associated by E. coli in a thoroughbred horse.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.5-8
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• 2015

D-dimer is a fibrin degradation product (FDP), a small protein fragment present in the blood after a blood clot is degraded by fibrinolysis. D-dimer concentration is widely used for determining thrombosis and thromboembolism. Because one major cause of thromboembolism is congestive heart failure in human, we investigated the degree and risk of thromboembolism in dogs with different stage of congestive heart failure caused by chronic mitral valvular insufficiency (CMVI). The plasma level of d-dimer was evaluated in 20 healthy dogs and 30 dogs with different stage of congestive heart failure caused by CMVI. The d-dimer concentrations were measured by a commercialized assay kit. The plasma levels of d-dimer were not significantly different between healthy and CMVI dogs. Furthermore, there was no association of d-dimer concentrations to left atrium to aorta (LA/Ao) ratio, left ventricular dimension at diastole to aorta (LVIDd/Ao) ratio and severity of heart failure in our study population. Our study results implied that the degree of thromboembolism in canine heart failure might be minimal or the plasma d-dimer test might not be reliable for detecting thromboembolism in dogs.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.40 no.7 s.276
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• pp.503-507
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• 2007

Anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery (ALCAPA) has rarely been reported on in adults because 90% of the untreated infants die in the first year of life. We report here on a case of AICAPA that was detected in a 41-year-old woman and she was successfully treated by direct re-implantation of the anomalous coronary artery into the aorta.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.83 no.6
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• pp.1400-1405
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• 2022

Left atrial appendage aneurysm (LAAA) is a rare heart anomaly caused by congenital dysplasia of the pectinate muscle or by an acquired pathological condition of the mitral valve or cardiac muscle. It is often incidentally discovered during chest CT or echocardiography as an abnormal dilatation of the LAA. LAAA is associated with life-threatening complications and most patients require surgical treatment. Therefore, it is important to evaluate associated complications as well as precise diagnoses. This report presents the case of a surgically confirmed LAAA in a 53-year-old female. We also discuss the pathophysiology of LAAA and significant findings related to mortality that can be detected on CT and MRI.