Search results

Thank you Bmorgan4 for detailing Glaser's 2021 article. It is reassuring for BAV patients. This design does have a limitation. It compares people who have had surgery. No one who has a serious secondary problem, for example cancer, will be included. The study population is compared against a...

I think that the paper/editorial numbers sound right. The best paper I could find on this topic was the SWEDEHEART Study (Loss in life expectancy after surgical aortic valve replacement, 2019, vol 74(1), Journal of the American College of Cardiology). This study was big; 23,528 patients. I am no...

Pekster11 and PAN, sorry to hear how COVID is disrupting your plans. Hopefully these delays will have little impact to your long term health. Hopefully you don’t develop any nasty symptoms that would force the surgeons into earlier action. Pekster11, that running sounds very encouraging.

Hi NorthWood, Thanks for joining us. Best wishes for your preparations for surgery. I see similar excellent long term results in the journal articles for each modern mechanical valve. There doesn’t appear to be one that should be avoided or one that should be recommended to everyone. Happy to...

Best wishes to Arnie. He looks great in the photos. He got at least 20 years from the Ross procedure. That is good for such an active man who continued to lift so many weights. He would have burnt out a prosthetic valve much earlier. I understand that he wanted to avoid warfarin so he could...

Being alive for a week seems to frequently cause an interaction with my warfarin. Haven’t worked out whether it causes it to go up or down - seems to go either way. My point - it would actually be quite difficult to prove interactions above the normal noise of warfarin. Randomization...

Really neat scar. At the beach most people would not notice it or recognise it for a sternotomy.

Hopefully your wife is now getting back to normal. This event shows the benefit of warfarin‘a reversibility. A scary near miss.

Best wishes Athens.

After having my AVR last year, I used prophylactic antibiotics when I went to the dentist. It made me and the dentist feel better. However, does it really make sense? Do we take antibiotics every time when we brush our teeth? Brushing teeth causes bacteria to be released into our blood stream...

Best wishes Cactus52. Hear from you when you have a new valve.

If you are talking about age for valve choices, an age of about 70 is often an age cut off. However, it depends upon more than just chronological age. There are "old" people in their early 60s who have significant serious chronic diseases (for example emphysema, coronary artery disease) and...

It depends upon the age of the doctor. Anyone the same age or less than the doctor must be "young"!

Best wishes Cactus52. All that cardio work will help you bounce back more quickly.

Hi Pete81, A gradient usually refers to stenosis rather than regurgitation. The significance of 25 mmHg will depend upon whether it is mean gradient or peak gradient. If it is mean gradient: < 20 mmHg mild stenosis 20-40 mmHg moderate stenosis (mean 25 mmHg corresponds to low moderate stenosis)...

Best wishes Foxtail118. With all your preoperative physical activity, I am guessing that your core (abdominal) muscles are strong. After surgery you will have enough strength to sit up without needing help from your arms. I found that sitting up using core muscles did not hurt (trying to use...

It is good that you are keeping an eye on it. Regurgitation generally has little impact on exercise tolerance unless it is very severe (which wouldn't be the case around your valve). Getting the right anticoagulation levels is important to decrease the risk of a stroke. Expert opinion about...

I don’t see a mechanism how warfarin could create dementia itself. Poor INR control leads to increased stroke risk. Multiple small strokes can create vascular dementia. However, in the situation of good INR control, I suspect that warfarin may have some modest benefit by preventing clots forming...

What would I have done if I had reached 58 years old before my valve demanded attention (I was 45 so went mechanical)? Options: 1) Tissue valve - maybe will last 15-20 years. Replace with TAVI when it fails. 2) Mechanical - hopefully no further operations but lifelong warfarin. 3) TAVI - you...

I think that 2 years is a rather large time between echoes considering your last measurements which were close to severe. A BP drop during exercise tolerance testing is a possible indication for surgery according to the American Heart Association guidelines so a repeat echo is warranted sooner...