Besides the evolution of mitral inflow toward the delayed relaxation profile in elderly, a decrease of propagation and tissue Doppler velocities were documented. The strongest positive correlation with age was observed for atrial velocity of mitral inflow (A, r = 0.63) and inverse correlation for E/A ratio (r =-0.6) and early diastolic velocity of mitral annulus (r =-0.69).

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SummaryBnckgroutzd: Aortic valve disease is an important and frequent clinical problem with a mortality rate as high as 50230% in a 5-year natural history of patients with severe aortic valve disease. Biological or mechanical prosthesis implantation is the only way to improve prognosis.Hypothesis: The aim of our study WiiS to assess the clinical outcome of aortic valve replacement according to the underlying valve pathology and the type of replacement device, that is, aortic homografts versus mechanical prostheses.Metlzods: The study group consisted of 143 patients with a mean follow-up period of 4.1 k 2.7 years. All patients had annual clinical and Doppler echocardiographic evaluation.Results: Total 8-year mortality was 4..9% (7/143) including early mortality of 1.4%. Eight-year survival probability was not significantly higher in the homograft than in the mechanical prosthesis recipients. No differences were found among subgroups with aortic stenosis, insufficiency, and combined disease. Overall early and late complication rate (13.3 and 24.8%, respectively) was similar in homograft and mechanical valve recipients. The most common late complications were ventricular arrhythmia (10%) (L,own class I-III), pre-