Background-Several centers favor replacing a diseased native heart valve with a tissue rather than a mechanical prosthesis, even in younger adult patients. However, long-term data supporting this approach are lacking. We examined the survival implications of selecting a tissue versus a mechanical prosthesis at initial left-heart valve replacement in a cohort of adults Ͻ60 years of age who were followed for over 20 years. Methods and Results-Comorbid and procedural data were available from 6554 patients who underwent valve replacement at our institution over the last 35 years. Of these, 1512 patients contributed follow-up data beyond 20 years, of whom 567 were adults Ͻ60 years of age at first left-heart valve operation (mean survivor follow-up, 24.0Ϯ3.1 years). Late outcomes were examined with Cox regression. Valve reoperation, often for prostheses that are no longer commercially available, occurred in 89% and 84% of patients by 20 years after tissue aortic and mitral valve replacement, respectively, and was associated with a mortality of 4.3%. There was no survival difference between patients implanted with a tissue versus a mechanical prosthesis at initial aortic valve replacement (hazard ratio 0.95; 95% CI: 0.7, 1.3; Pϭ0.7). For mitral valve replacement patients, long-term survival was poorer than after aortic valve replacement (hazard ratio 1.4; 95% CI: 1.1, 1.8; Pϭ0.003), but again no detrimental effect was associated with use of a tissue versus a mechanical prosthesis (hazard ratio 0.9; 95% CI 0.5, 1.4; Pϭ0.5).
Conclusions-In
These analyses identify independent predictors of congestive heart failure symptoms and congestive heart failure death late after aortic valve replacement and indicate that prosthesis size has a significant effect on this cardiac end point, but not on overall survival after aortic valve replacement.
Patients who received LVADs were less severely ill before the operation and consequently were more likely to survive after the operation. As the severity of illness increases, patients are more likely to require biventricular support.
In patients with severe LV dysfunction, the amount of scar was a significant independent predictor of LV function recovery after revascularization. A combination of PET and clinical parameters predicts the degree of recovery. This model is being applied in a large randomized controlled trial to determine the effectiveness of therapy guided by FDG PET.
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