Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Patients' observations of bioprosthetic valve failure: "my heart is honking, doctor".
  1. M Errington,
  2. P Bloomfield,
  3. I R Starkey,
  4. T R Shaw
  1. Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh.

    Abstract

    Audible cardiac murmurs are uncommon and may indicate severe native valve dysfunction. In six patients with bioprosthetic mitral valves audible honking systolic murmurs suddenly developed. Doppler echocardiography showed characteristic striated regurgitant signals. At operation each prosthesis had torn cusps. New audible murmurs and striated Doppler signals originating from mitral bioprosthetic valves are indicators of cusp tears. Recognition of this is important because early detection of prosthetic valve dysfunction may improve subsequent surgical outcome.

    Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.