Effects of cardiac resynchronization therapy on echocardiographic indices, functional capacity, and clinical outcomes of patients with a systemic right ventricle.

AIMS: Surgically (SC) or congenitally corrected (CC) transposition of the great arteries (TGA), associated with a systemic right ventricle (RV), is often complicated by heart failure. This retrospective study assessed the functional and mechanical effects of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) in patients presenting with TGA. METHODS AND RESULTS: Seven patients with SC (n = 5) or CC (n = 2) TGA (mean age 24.6 +/- 12 years), a failing systemic RV, and intraventricular dyssynchrony, underwent implantation of a CRT-P. Permanent pacemakers were previously implanted in five patients. The leads were implanted by a combined transvenous and epicardial approach in the five patients with SC TGA. Echocardiography, including tissue Doppler imaging and cardiopulmonary exercise testing were performed before and during CRT. Since, in all patients, ventricular dyssynchrony was due to delayed septal wall contraction, the interventricular septum and RV free wall were stimulated synchronously, with a view to resynchronize a maximum amount of myocardium. After 19.4 +/- 8.1 months of CRT, mean QRS duration decreased from 160 +/- 31 to 120 +/- 28 ms (P = 0.03), intraventricular delay from 104 +/- 27 to 14 +/- 15 ms (P = 0.01), New York Heart Association functional class from 3.0 to 1.57 (P = 0.01), and peak oxygen consumption increased from 13.8 +/- 2.5 to 22.8 +/- 6.7 mL/kg/min (P = 0.03). One patient died suddenly at 23 months of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: CRT was technically feasible and associated with improvements in cardiac mechanical function and clinical status in patients with TGA, failing systemic RV, and intraventricular dyssynchrony.

Contemporary results of mitral valve repair for infective endocarditis.

OBJECTIVES: We sought to evaluate the feasibility and immediate and late results of mitral valve repair (MVRep) for acute and healed endocarditis. BACKGROUND: Improvements in techniques of MVRep have extended its feasibility in complex lesions, but experience with endocarditis is limited. METHODS: Among 78 patients operated on for mitral endocarditis between 1990 and 1999, 63 underwent MVRep. The repair was performed for acute endocarditis in 25 patients (40%) at a median of 20 days after the onset of treatment and in 38 patients (60%) for healed endocarditis after a median of 11 months. RESULTS: Repair of the mitral valve was feasible in 63 patients (81%). This repair involved annuloplasty in 61 patients (97%), valve resection in 49 (78%), shortening or transposition of chordae in 29 (46%), suture of perforation in 18 (29%), a pericardial patch in 12 (19%), and a partial mitral homograft in 7 (11%). Associated procedures were aortic valve replacement in 11 patients, bypass grafting in 3, and tricuspid repair in 2. Early complications were two deaths (3.2%), one re-operation for severe mitral regurgitation and one re-operation for subsequent aortic endocarditis. The seven-year rate of event-free survival was 78 +/- 6% in the global series. Multivariate predictors of event-free survival were hypertension (p < 0.006) and intervention for acute endocarditis (p < 0.026). Five-year survival rates were 96 +/- 4% after MVRep for acute endocarditis and 91 +/- 5% for healed endocarditis. CONCLUSIONS: Mitral valve repair is frequently feasible and gives good results in patients with infective endocarditis. Patients operated on for acute endocarditis experience more events during follow-up than those operated on after healed endocarditis but have excellent late survival.