• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.443-448
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• 1986

Aortic dissection is a serious disease that mortality does not approach to zero despite of medical and surgical improvement. Recently two cases of aortic dissection were treated with good results by the two other methods. Case 1 [57-Y-0-Male]; Chief complaint was chest pain radiating to the back. Preoperatively he was controlled by Minipress, dichlotride, & sodium nitroprusside. Aortography showed DeBakey Type III aortic dissection extending from just below the Lt. subclavian artery to the proximal portion of the origin of the renal artery. Through the midline long incision Flow reversal & Thrombo-exclusion method was used, and bypass course was proximal anastomosis at the ascending aorta - through the Rt. thoracic cavity - midportion of the diaphragm - posterior to the liver, stomach, & pancreas - distal anastomosis at the abdominal aorta proximal to its bifurcation. Bypass graft was preclotted 20 mm Dacron Woven Graft, and the aortic arch between the Lt. subclavian artery & Lt. common carotid artery was divided and meticulously sutured. Control aortogram which was done at 4th postoperative month revealed obstruction of the false lumen by thrombosis, and complications were not noticed. Case 2 [53-Y-0-Male]; Chief complaint was chest pain radiating to the abdomen. DeBakey Type III aortic dissection which was similar to the case 1 was detected by the aortography, and involvement of the Lt. subclavian & common carotid arteries was suspicious. Through the Lt. posterolateral thoracotomy the Ringed Intraluminal Sutureless Graft, No. 22 mm, was inserted from just below the Lt. common carotid artery to the midportion of the descending thoracic aorta under total circulation arrest using a F-F bypass, and the Lt. subclavian artery was ligated. Postoperatively hospital course was uneventful with antihypertensive drugs, and any specific complications were not noticed.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.61-67
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• 2008

Background: Conventional ascending aortic cross clamping is often limited. This study was carried out to evaluate the safety and efficacy of an endovascular aortic clamping technique with an intraaortic balloon catheter. Material and Method: From April 2004 to January 2007, surgery with endoaortic clamping was performed in seven patients. A retrograde access perfusion (RAP) catheter was used in six patients and a Pruitt's balloon catheter in two patients. The indication for the operation was a retrosternal pseudoaneurysm of the aortic root in six patients, diffuse calcification of the ascending aorta with aortic regurgitation in 2 patients and an atrial septal defect in one patient. Five patients had at least two prior cardiac surgeries. Result: Successful insertion of the catheter and endoaortic clamping was achieved in all patients. Conclusion: The endovascular aortic clamping technique with a balloon catheter was a useful alternative method for patients in whom conventional cardiac surgery was limited.

• Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.229-237
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• 2018

BACKGROUND: Statins are thought to have little effect on the progression of aortic stenosis, but the data on their role in patients with aortic valve sclerosis (AVS) are limited and inconsistent. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 541 consecutive patients (214 men, age: $70{\pm}11$ years) with AVS. Each patient underwent two or more electrocardiography examinations at least 6 months apart at Kangwon National University Hospital from August 2010 to August 2015. AVS is defined as irregular thickening of the leaflets, focal increases in echogenicity and minimal elevation of the peak aortic valve velocity (> 1.5 and < 2 m/s). The progression rate of AVS was expressed as the increase in peak velocity per year (m/s/yr). RESULTS: The mean follow-up duration was $24.9{\pm}13.3$ months in the statin-treated group and $24.1{\pm}12.4$ months in the non-statin-treated group (p = 0.460). There were no differences between the statin-treated and non-statin-treated groups in mean age, gender or smoking status. Relative to the non-statin-treated group, a higher number of patients in the statin-treated group had hypertension, diabetes, ischemic heart disease, and stroke. The progression rate of AVS did not differ between the statin-treated and non-statin-treated groups ($0.012{\pm}0.340m/s/yr$ vs. $0.014{\pm}0.245m/s/yr$, p = 0.956). Multivariate analysis showed initial peak aortic jet velocity was significantly associated with AVS progression (${\beta}=0.153$, p = 0.009). CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrated that statins had no effect on the progression of AVS. However, well-designed studies are needed to define the prognosis and management of AVS.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.289-294
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• 1983

The report is concerned to our experience of 12 cases of open heart surgery under the extracorporeal circulation at the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Chosun University Hospital during the period between Nov, 1979 and April, 1983. 1. There were 4 cases of congenital anomaly and 8 cases of acquired heart disease. 2. There were 6 male and 6 female patients with a mean age of 20 years. [range 9 to 33 years]. 3. The cases induced 2 ventricular septal defect, 2 atrial septal defects and 8 acquired valvular heart diseases. 4. The surgical managements were 2 primary repair for atrial septal defect and 2 patch closure for ventricular septal defect, 1 triple valve replacement [AVR MVR TVR], 1 aortic valve replacement, 4 double valve replacement [AVR MVR] and 2 open mitral commissurotomy for pure mitral stenosis. 5. The average cardiopulmonary bypass time was 61.5 minutes for congenital heart disease and 201.4 minutes for acquired valvular heart disease and the average aortic cross clamping time was 36.75 minutes for the former and 165.6 minutes for the latter. 6. Postoperatively, there were 1 Alopecia, 1 Electric burn and 1 wound infection as complication. 7. Overall operative mortality was 8.3%. 7. All patients received valve replacement were recommended anticoagulation with persantin.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.38 no.3 s.248
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• pp.221-228
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• 2005

Reduction aortoplasty has been advocated for dilatation of the ascending aorta associated with aortic valve disease in older, high-risk patients. We report our results with modification of reduction aortoplasty and aortic valve replacement. Material and Method: Between July 2001 and December 2002, 14 consecutive patients who underwent modification of reduction aortoplasty, suture plication technique without excision of the dilated aortic wall, were reviewed. The mean age was 63.7$\pm$6.7 (50 to 75) years. Ten patients had congenital bicuspid aortic valve, Twelve patients had severe aortic valve stenosis and 6 had regurgitation of grade III$\~$IV. The diameter of the ascending aorta was measured before and immediately after surgery and 6 and 12 months postoperatively using echocardiography or computed tomography. Follow-up was complete in an average of 14.7$\~$5.4 (7 to 24) months. Result: There were no early postoperative deaths and no bleeding complications. Reduction aortoplasty with suture plication technique decreased the diameter of ascending aorta from 49.4$\pm$3.5 mm preoperatively to 33.2$\pm$3.4 mm postoperatively (p <0.001). During follow-up, there were no late deaths and no aneurysm recurrence on the ascending aorta. Conclusion: Suture plication technique of reduction aortoplasty without excision of the dilated aortic wall offers good early and short-term results in older, high-risk patients with dilatation of the ascending aorta associated with aortic valve disease. Surgical long-term results of our technique should be evaluated in further studies.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.113-117
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• 2002

With an increasing awareness of the limitations of both mechanical prostheses and bioprostheses, aortic valvuloplasty has gained attention as an alternative procedure for aortic valve disease. Material and Method: Eight consecutive patients underwent aortic valvuloplasty caused by leaflet prolapse between June 1799 to June 2000. Mean age of the patients was 18.4$\pm$12.6 year. Four paitents(50%) were male. Six patients had tricuspid valves and ventricular septal defect and two patients had bicuspid valves. The extent of aortic insufficiency was 3.5$\pm$0.5 by preoperative Doppler echocardiography. The technique involved triangular resection of the free edge of the prolapsed leaflet, annular plication at the commissure, and resection of a raphe when present in bicuspid valves. Result: There was no in-hospital mortality or morbidity. Mean follow-up was complete at 11.973.6months. There was no late mortality or morbidity. The amount of the severity of aortic insufficiency, as assessed by echocardiography preoperatively, postoperatively and at late follow-up was 3.5$\pm$0.5, 0.6$\pm$0.5 and 0.8$\pm$0.6, respectively(p value : 0.01). There was one patient with grade 2/4 aortic insufficiency and in the other patients, grade 1/2 or trivial aortic insufficiency were detected with late echocardiograms. Conclusion: Triangular resection in the patients with aortic leaflet prolapse offers a good early clinical result, but long-term follow-up is necessary.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.38 no.3 s.248
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• pp.197-203
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• 2005

Homograft aortic valve replacement (AVR) has many advantages such as excellent hemodynamic performance, faster left ventricular hypertrophy regression, resistance to infection and excellent freedom of thromboembolism. To find out the results of homograft AVR, we reviewed our surgical experiences. Material and Method: Eighteen patients (male female=16 : 2, mean age=39.3$\pm$16.2 years, range: 14$\~$68 years) who underwent homo-graft aortic valve replacement between May 1995 and May 2004 were reviewed. The number of homografts was 20 (17 aortic and 3 pulmonic homografts) including two re-operations. Ten patients had a history of previous aortic valve surgery. Indications for the use of a homograft were native valve endocarditis (n=7), prosthetic valve endocarditis (n=5), or Behcet's disease (n=8). The homograft had been implanted predominantly as a full root except in one patient in the subcoronary position. Result: Mean follow-up was 41.3 $\pm$ 26.2 months. There was one operative mortality. Postoperative complications included postoperative bleeding in 3 patients, and wound infection in 1. There was no late death. Three patients underwent redo-AVR. The etiology of the three reoperated patients was Behcet's disease (p=0.025). Freedom from reoperation was $87.5\pm8.3\%$, $78.8\pm11.2\%$ at 1, 5 years respectively, In patients with infective endocarditis, there was no recurrence of endocarditis. There was no thromboembolic complication. Conclusion: Although longer term follow-up with larger numbers of patients is necessary, the operative and mid-term results for homograft AVR was good when we took into account the operative risks of Behcet's disease or infective endocarditis. Behest's disease was a risk factor for reoperation after the homograft AVR. We think homograft AVR is the procedure of choice, particularly in patients with infective endocarditis.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.40 no.11
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• pp.727-732
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• 2007

Background: The reciptents of aortic valve replacement or a Bentall operation usually display various degrees of mitral regurgitation. When deciding whether or not to correct the mitral regurgitation, one must consider its severity, underlying causes and operative risk. Recently, the operation method for correcting the concomitant mitral regurgitation has been done through aortic root to reduce the operation time and the cardiac trauma. We report our experiences that transaortic mitral valve commissuroplasty done with aortic valve replacement or a Bentall operation has been a simple, less invasive, effective method in the operative management of mitral valve regurgitation without significant organic changes. Material and Method: Between June 2002 and June 2005, twenty patients under-went mitral valve commissuroplasty via the aortic root with aortic valve replacement (n=14) or a Bentall operation (n=7). The mitral valve regurgitation of the patients didn't exceed a moderate (grade 2) degree and there was no significant organic disease. The preoperative diagnosis of MR was established by TTE and intraoperative TEE, and the patients were followed postoperatively by TTE. The operative technique was a simple anterolateral commissuroplasty of the mitral valve with a single mattress suture via the transaortic annular approach after excision of the aortic valve leaflets. Result: The mean patient age was 56.2 years and 65% (n=13) were male. The preoperative MR was mild (grade 1) in 9 (45%), mild to moderate in 8 (40%), and moderate (grade 2) in 3 (15%) patients. There were no operative mortalities. The MR improved in all patients (p=0.002) and the left ventricular ejection fraction (LV EF) improved in 14 (70%) patients (p=0.005). The mean cross-clamp time for the patients who under- went aortic valve replacement with transaortic mitral repair was $62.1{\pm}13.9 min$ and this was $137.5{\pm}7.2 min$ for the patients who underwent a Bentall operation with transaortic mitral repair. Conclusion: For selected patients without significant mitral organic disease, transaortic mitral valve commissuroplasty combined with aortic valve replacement or a Bentall operation may be a feasible, effective method without adding significant aortic cross clamping time and more cardiotomy.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.225-233
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• 1996

From August 1992 to July 1996, 63 consecutive patients underwent coronary artery bypass surgery. The mean age of these patient was 57 years(range form 30 to 71years). There were 44 men and 19 women. Preoperative 12 patients had stable angina pectoris and 23 patients were unstable angina pectoris. 8 patients had previous myocardial infarctation history and emergency or urgent myocardial revascularization were performed in 9 cases. In the risk factors of coronary atherosclerosis, 25 patients(40%) were hypercholesterolemia, 38 patients(60%) have smoking history and 19 patients(30%) have hypertension history. In the patterns of disease, 9 patients were single vessel disease, 18 patients were two vessele disease and 33 patients were three vessel disease. We performed total 284 distal anastomosis(mean 3.5 anastomosis per patient) and performed one case of ascending aorta graft interposition, two cases of mitral valve replacement, one case of aortic valve replacement, one case of ventricular septal defect repair and one case of atrial septal defect repair and the mean aortic cross clamp time was 115.3 minutes. The common complications were arrhythmia(7cases), wound infection(5cases), perioperative myocardial infarction(4cases), reoperation for bleeding control(4cases) and stroke(4cases). There were six hospital deaths due to low cardiac output syndrome, ventricular arrhythmia and respiratory failure. In the evaluation of operative risk factors, preoperative intravenous nitroglycerin requirement and prolonged aortic cross clamp tirne(>2hours) were found to be predective factor of morbidity and old age(>65years) was found to be predective factor of mortality.

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.163-177
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• 2008

Periodontal disease, a form of chronic inflammatory bacterial infectious disease, is known to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Porphyromonas gingivalis has been implicated in periodontal disease and widely studied for its role in the pathogenesis of CVD. A previous study demonstrating that periodontopathic P. gingivalis is involved in CVD showed that invasion of endothelial cells by the bacterium is accompanied by an increase in cytokine production, which may result in vascular atherosclerotic changes. The present study was performed in order to further elucidate the role of P. gingivalis in the process of atherosclerosis and CVD. For this purpose, invasion of human aortic smooth muscle cells (HASMC) by P. gingivalis 381 and its isogenic mutants of KDP150 ($fimA^-$), CW120 ($ppk^-$) and KS7 ($relA^-$) was assessed using a metronidazole protection assay. Wild type P. gingivalis invaded HASMCs with an efficiency of 0.12%. In contrast, KDP150 failed to demonstrate any invasive ability. CW120 and KS7 showed relatively higher invasion efficiencies, but results for these variants were still negligible when compared to the wild type invasiveness. These results suggest that fimbriae are required for invasion and that energy metabolism in association with regulatory genes involved in stress and stringent response may also be important for this process. ELISA assays revealed that the invasive P. gingivalis 381 increased production of the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-$1{\beta}$ and the chemotactic cytokines (chemokine) IL (interleukin)-8 and monocyte chemotactic (MCP) protein-1 during the 30-90 min incubation periods (P<0.05). Expression of RANTES (regulation upon activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted) and Toll-like receptor (TLR)-4, a pattern recognition receptor (PRR), was increased in HASMCs infected with P. gingivalis 381 by RT-PCR analysis. P. gingivalis infection did not alter interferon-$\gamma$-inducible protein-10 expression in HASMCs. HASMC nonspecific necrosis and apoptotic cell death were measured by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and caspase activity assays, respectively. LDH release from HASMCs and HAMC caspase activity were significantly higher after a 90 min incubation with P. gingivalis 381. Taken together, P. gingivalis invasion of HASMCs induces inflammatory cytokine production, apoptotic cell death, and expression of TLR-4, a PRR which may react with the bacterial molecules and induce the expression of the chemokines IL-8, MCP-1 and RANTES. Overall, these results suggest that invasive P. gingivalis may participate in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, leading to CVD.