• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.24-29
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• 2012

Background: The conventional method of aortic cross-clamping is very difficult and increases the risk of cerebral infarct due to embolism of the calcified aorta in these patients. Accordingly, we analyzed our experience with 11 cases of ascending aorta and aortic valve replacement with hypothermic circulatory arrest. Materials and Methods: From January 2002 to December 2009, 11 patients had ascending aorta and aortic valve replacement with hypothermic arrest at our hospital. We performed a retrospective study. Results: There were 5 males and 6 females, with a mean age of 68 years (range, 44 to 82 years). Eight patients had aortic stenosis, and 3 patients had aortic regurgitation. An aortic cannula was inserted into the right axillary artery in 3 patients and ascending aorta in 6 patients. Two patients with aortic regurgitation had a remote access perfusion catheter inserted though the right femoral artery. The mean cardiopulmonary bypass time was 180 minutes (range, 110 to 306 minutes) and mean hypothermic circulatory arrest time was 30 minutes (range, 20 to 48 minutes). The mean rectal temperature during hypothermic circulatory arrest was $21^{\circ}C$ (range, $19^{\circ}C$ to $23^{\circ}C$). No patient had any new onset of cerebral infarct or cardiovascular accident after surgery. There was no hospital mortality. Early complications occurred in 1 patient who needed reoperation due to postoperative bleeding. Late complications occurred in 1 patient who underwent a Bentall operation due to prosthetic valve endocarditis. The mean follow-up duration was 32 months (range, 1 month to 8 years) and 1 patient died suddenly due to unknown causes after 5 years. Conclusion: Patients with a calcified aorta can be safely treated with a technique based on aorta and aortic valve replacement under hypothermic circulatory arrest.

• Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.145-149
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• 2023

BACKGROUND: ¹⁸F-sodium fluoride positron emission tomography/computed tomography (¹⁸F-NaF PET/CT) has been proven to be useful in identification of microcalcifications, which are stimulated by inflammation. Blood speckle imaging (BSI) is a new imaging technology used for tracking the flow of blood cells using transesophageal echocardiography (TEE). We evaluated the relationship between turbulent flow identified by BSI and inflammatory activity of the aortic valve (AV) as indicated by the ¹⁸F-NaF uptake index in moderate aortic stenosis (AS) patients. METHODS: This study enrolled 18 moderate AS patients diagnosed within the past 6 months. BSI within the aortic root was acquired using long-axis view TEE. The duration of laminar flow and the turbulent flow area ratio were calculated by BSI to demonstrate the degree of turbulence. The maximum and mean standardized uptake values (SUVmax, SUVmean) and the total microcalcification burden (TMB) as measured by ¹⁸F-NaF PET/CT were used to demonstrate the degree of inflammatory activity in the AV region. RESULTS: The mean SUVmean, SUVmax, and TMB were 1.90 ± 0.79, 2.60 ± 0.98, and 4.20 ± 2.18 mL, respectively. The mean laminar flow period and the turbulent area ratio were 116.1 ± 61.5 msec and 0.48 ± 0.32. The correlation between SUVmax and turbulent flow area ratio showed the most positive and statistically significant correlation, with a Pearson's correlation coefficient (R²) of 0.658 and a p-value of 0.014. CONCLUSIONS: The high degree of trans-aortic turbulence measured by BSI was correlated with severe AV inflammation.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.54-57
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• 2017

A 1-year-old castrated male Schnauzer dog was presented with heart murmur. Auscultation revealed systolic murmur located at the left heart base (grade 5/6). There were no remarkable findings on thoracic radiographs. Two-dimensional echocardiography revealed subaortic tunnel-like obstruction at the entrance to the left ventricular outflow tract. Anterior mitral valve leaflet appeared to be tethered to septum with minimal motion. Chordae tendineae was abnormally thickened. Color Doppler analysis revealed turbulent flow starting below the aortic valve. Mitral regurgitation was presented during systole. Spectral Doppler recordings revealed high velocity flow through the aorta and mitral regurgitation. Based on echocardiographic examination, the dog was diagnosed with subaortic stenosis concurrent with mitral dysplasia. The patient was medicated with ${\beta}-blocker$ and diuretics. It has been doing well without apparent clinical signs at 2 year after the diagnosis.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.164-173
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• 2015

Background: Hypertrophied myocardium is especially vulnerable to ischemic injury. This study aimed to compare the early and late clinical outcomes of three different methods of myocardial protection in patients with aortic stenosis. Methods: This retrospective study included 225 consecutive patients (mean age, 65{\pm}10 years; 123 males) with severe aortic stenosis who underwent aortic valve replacement. Patients were excluded if they had coronary artery disease, an ejection fraction <50%, more than mild aortic regurgitation, or endocarditis. The patients were divided into three groups: group A, which was treated with antegrade and retrograde cold blood cardioplegia; group B, which was treated with antegrade crystalloid cardioplegia using histidine-tryptophan-ketoglutarate (HTK) solution; and group C, treated with retrograde cold blood cardioplegia. Results: Group A contained 70 patients (31.1%), group B contained 74 patients (32.9%), and group C contained 81 patients (36%). The three groups showed significant differences with regard to the proportion of patients with a New York Heart Association functional classification ${\geq}III$ (p=0.035), N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide levels (p=0.042), ejection fraction (p=0.035), left ventricular dimensions (p<0.001), left ventricular mass index (p<0.001), and right ventricular systolic pressure (p <0.001). Differences in cardiopulmonary bypass time (p=0.532) and aortic cross-clamp time (p=0.48) among the three groups were not statistically significant. During postoperative recovery, no significant differences were found regarding the use of inotropes (p=0.328), mechanical support (n=0), arrhythmias (atrial fibrillation, p=0.347; non-sustained ventricular tachycardia, p=0.1), and ventilator support time (p=0.162). No operative mortality occurred. Similarly, no significant differences were found in long-term outcomes. Conclusion: Although the three groups showed some significant differences with regard to patient characteristics, both antegrade crystalloid cardioplegia with HTK solution and retrograde cold blood cardioplegia led to early and late clinical results similar to those achieved with combined antegrade and retrograde cold blood cardioplegia.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.368-370
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• 2009

As the average age of the general population increases, a growing number of elderly patients are presenting for cardiac operations. Although aortic valve replacement in patients aged 80 years and older has been shown to have excellent outcomes with good long-term survival rates, some physicians are still hesitant to refer elderly patients for surgical intervention. A 95-years old female was admitted to our hospital with cardiogenic shock and an emergency operation was required. She was successfully treated with emergency aortic valve replacement. We report here on a case of successful emergency surgical treatment for aortic stenosis in a 95 years old woman.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.1330-1340
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• 2012

In this paper, a new algorithm is proposed for the heart valves stenosis region detection using heart sounds. Many researches for detecting primary components or removing heart murmurs have been studied, but their performances are degraded at abnormal heart sounds such as aortic stenosis and mitral stenosis because of large heart murmurs. In this paper, heart murmur detection method is proposed based on noise intensity function. The proposed noise intensity function detect the primary components S1, S2, then set session up using S1, S2. And then noise intensity function was computed using autocorrelation value of each session. The proposed noise intensity function estimated noise intensity of each sessions and detected heart murmurs. According to simulation results, the proposed algorithm has better performance than former study for detecting heart valve stenosis region.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.32-37
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• 2000

Background: Reconstruction surgery of mitral valve regurgitation is now considered as an effective operative technique and has shown good long-term results. Although reconstructive surgery of mitral valve has been performed since 1970s, we have started only in early 1990s in full scale because of small number of the mitral regurgitation compared to mitral stenosis and lack of knowledge from the viewpoint of patients and physicians. Material and Method: From January 1992 to December 1996, 100 patients underwent repair of the mitral valve for mitral regurgitation with or without mitral stenosis in Seoul National University Hospital. 45(45%) of the patients were men and 55(55%) were women. The mean age was 39.9$\pm$14.4 years. The causes of the mitral regurgitation were rheumatic in 61, degenerative in 28 and others in 11. According to the Carpentier's pathological classification of mitral regurgitation 5 patients were type I. 55 patients were type II and 40 patients were type III. 7 patients underwent concomitant aortic valvuloplasty and 8 patients underwent aortic valve replacement. 7 patients underwent Maze operation or pulmonary vein isolation. Result: There were no operative death but 3 major operative complications: 2patients were postoperative low cardiac output syndrome(needed intra-aortic ballon pump support) and 1 patient was postoperative bleeding. There was one late death(1.0%) The cause of death was sepsis secondary to acute bacterial endocarditis. 3 patients required reoperation for recurred mitral regurgitation. There were no statistically significant risk factors for reoperation. The other 96 patients showed no or mild degree of mitral regurgitation 99 survivors were in NYHA functional class I or II. There were two throumboembolisms but no anticoagulation-related complications. Conclusion: We concluded that mitral valve repair could be performed successfully in most cases of mitral regurgitation even in the rheumatic and combined lesions with very low operative mortality and morbidity. The early results are very promising.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.332-338
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• 2020

Background: Attaining an adequate effective orifice area (EOA) is definitive goal in aortic valve replacement (AVR). The simple interrupted suture (SIS) technique could be a solution to achieve this goal, but limited data are available in the literature. This study aimed to compare hemodynamic differences between the SIS and non-everting mattress suture (NMS) techniques. Methods: From our database, 215 patients who underwent AVR for severe aortic stenosis were extracted to form the overall cohort. From March 2015 to November 2016, the SIS technique was used in 79 patients, while the NMS technique was used in 136 patients. Hemodynamic outcomes were evaluated, as detected by transthoracic echocardiography and computed tomography. Results: There were no significant differences in baseline characteristics between the 2 groups. On immediate postoperative echocardiography, the SIS group showed a significantly wider EOA (1.6±0.4 vs. 1.4±0.5 ㎠, p=0.007) and a lower mean pressure gradient (PG) (13.3±5.4 vs. 17.0±6.0 mm Hg, p<0.001) than the NMS group. On follow-up echocardiography, the SIS group continued to have a wider EOA (1.6±0.4 vs. 1.4±0.3 ㎠, p<0.001) and a lower mean PG (11.0±5.1 vs. 14.1±5.5 mm Hg, p<0.001). There was no significant difference in paravalvular leakage. Conclusion: The SIS technique for AVR was associated with a wider EOA and a lower mean PG. The SIS technique could be a reasonable option for AVR.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.233-239
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• 2014

Background: As hypertrophied myocardium predisposes the patient to decreased tolerance to ischemia and increased reperfusion injury, myocardial protection is of utmost importance in patients undergoing aortic valve replacement (AVR) for severe aortic valve stenosis (AS). Methods: Consecutive 314 patients (mean age, $62.5{\pm}10.8$ years; 143 females) with severe AS undergoing isolated AVR were included. Postoperative myocardial injury (PMI) was defined as 1) maximum postoperative creatinine kinase isoenzyme MB or troponin-I levels ${\geq}10$ times of reference, 2) postoperative low cardiac output syndrome or episodes of ventricular arrhythmia, or 3) left ventricular ejection fraction of less than 55% and decrease in left ventricle (LV) ejection fraction of more than 20% of the baseline value. Results: There were 90 patients (28.7%) who developed PMI. There were five cases of early death (1.6%), all of whom had PMI. On multivariable analysis, the use of histidine-tryptophan-ketoglutarate (HTK) solution instead of blood cardioplegia (odds ratio [OR], 3.06; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.63 to 5.77; p=0.001), greater LV mass (OR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.07; p=0.007), and increased cardiac ischemic time (OR, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.05 to 1.22; p<0.001) were independent predictors for PMI. Patients who had PMI showed significantly inferior long-term survival than those without PMI (p=0.049). Conclusion: PMI occurred in a considerable proportion of patients undergoing AVR for severe AS and was associated with poor long-term survival. HTK cardioplegia, higher LV mass, and longer cardiac ischemic duration were suggested as predictors of myocardial injury.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.236-244
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• 1990

To improve the prognosis of mitral valve replacement surgery, analysis and evaluation of pre and intra operative risk factors will be very much valuable. Author studied 205 cases of mitral valve replacement from Feb 1982 to June 1989 for the risk factors of hospital death. 90 patients were male and 115 were female, and age was from 16 to 59 years, Mitral stenosis dominant lesions were 91 cases and regurgitation 114. Suspected risk factors were NYHA functional class, cardiothoracic ratio, implanted valve type and size, operation time, age and sex, thrombus in left atrium, atrial fibrillation, aortic cross clamping time, left ventricular end diastolic and systolic dimension, nephropathy, hepatopathy and respiratory insufficiency. Statistic analysis was performed by X2 test between survivors and death group. Statistical significances as pre and intraoperative risk factors of hospital death after mitral valve replacement were confirmed in those presence of AF on the EKG, NYHA functional class[>IV], cardiothoracic ratio[>70%], and implanted valve size[>33mm]