Plastia mitral en endocarditis infecciosa: reporte de un caso / Mitral valve repair in infective endocarditis: a case report / Plastia mitral em endocardite infecciosa: relato de um caso

La endocarditis infecciosa es una patología heterogénea con una alta mortalidad y requiere tratamiento quirúrgico en al menos la mitad de los casos. Cuando asienta en posición mitral, la reparación valvular en lugar de su sustitución, si bien representa un desafío técnico, ha ido ganando terreno en los últimos años. Describimos el caso de un paciente que se presentó con una endocarditis sobre válvula nativa mitral en quien se realizó una plastia valvular exitosa. Revisaremos la evidencia acerca de su beneficio.

Infective endocarditis is a heterogeneous disease with a high mortality and that requires surgical treatment in at least half of cases. When seated in mitral position, valve repair rather than replacement, while technically challenging, has been gaining popularity in recent years. We describe the case of a patient who presented with a mitral valve endocarditis in whom a successful valve repair was performed. Evidence supporting its use will be reviewed.

A endocardite infecciosa é uma doença heterogênea com alta mortalidade que requer tratamento cirúrgico em pelo menos metade dos casos. Quando sentado na posição mitral, o reparo da válvula, em vez da substituição da válvula, embora seja um desafio técnico, tem ganhado espaço nos últimos anos. Descrevemos o caso de um paciente que apresentou endocardite valvar mitral nativa, no qual foi realizada plastia valvar com sucesso. Vamos revisar as evidências sobre o seu benefício.

Thrombolysis for prosthetic valve malfunction: case report and review.

A 40 year old female with severe mitral valve stenosis, underwent mitral valve replacement by single disc valve 4 years ago. She presented at this admission with a new onset of congestive heart failure. The prothrombin time was inadequate with international normalized ratio (INR) 1.43. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed high pressure gradient across the mitral valve. Fluoroscopy demonstrated restrictive opening of single disc motion. Intravenous thrombolysis was given for presumptive diagnosis of prosthetic valve thrombosis. The patient gradually improved and did not have to undergo surgical correction.

Acute haemodynamic effects of nicorandil in patients with chronic severe regurgitant valvular lesions.

The haemodynamic effects of nicorandil, a new balanced vasodilator exhibiting nitrate-like as well as potassium-channel opening activity in patients with chronic severe valvular lesions have not been reported. We studied the acute effect of nicorandil on haemodynamics in 12 stable patients (6 males, 6 females; mean age 23.5 +/- 4.6 years) with chronic severe valvular regurgitation (8 mitral, 4 aortic). All patients were studied in resting, supine and fasting states. All cardioactive drugs were withdrawn five days prior to the study. Intra-arterial line was placed and thermodilution catheter was positioned in the pulmonary artery. Haemodynamic parameters recorded at baseline and at 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes following a single oral dose of 20 mg nicorandil revealed no significant change in the heart rate while systemic pressures showed a small decline (p < 0.05). There was significant reduction in systolic, diastolic and mean pulmonary artery pressures (p < 0.001). The mean cardiac index increased from 3.16 L/min/m2 at baseline to 3.77 L/min/m2 at 60 minutes. Both the pulmonary and systemic vascular resistance indices reduced significantly, the peak fall being 18 percent and 29 percent, respectively. Maximal changes were observed at 60 to 90 minutes following administration of nicorandil. No adverse effect of nicorandil occurred during the study. We conclude that nicorandil has a favourable acute haemodynamic effect in patients with chronic severe valve regurgitation. Its long-term use in valvular lesions should be explored further.

Short-term evaluation of captopril in patients with chronic left sided valvular regurgitations.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical effects and the changes in cardiac performance of high- and low-dose captopril compared to placebo in patients with chronic symptomatic aortic regurgitation (AR), and/or mitral regurgitation (MR). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We randomized patients into three groups, placebo (Group 1), incremental daily doses of 50 mg (Group 2), and 100 mg captopril (Group 3). We compared exercise capacity before and after four-week of treatment. RESULTS: Treatment was well tolerated with no serious side effects including blood chemistry. There were no significant effects of treatment on left ventricular dimensions nor calculated left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) between groups (LVEF change -0.6%, -2.6%, 2.4%, in group 1, 2 and 3 respectively; p > 0.05). No difference of exercise duration between treatment and placebo arms (change by 13%, 12.8%, 16.4%, respectively; p > 0.05). However, there were trends in the number of the patients who improved in left ventricular performance (absolute LVEF change > 5% unit = 15%, 16%, and 42% respectively; p > 0.05) and exercise performance (exercise time improvement > 75 sec = 50%, 47%, and 68% respectively; p > 0.05) in high dose captopril treatment group. CONCLUSION: There was no significant improvement of left ventricular performance and exercise capacity after four-weeks' treatment of low and high dose captopril. Further study with a larger sample size, and longer follow-up period may be required.

La digoxina es efectiva en el tratamiento de pacientes con insuficiencia cardíaca y ritmo sinusal / Digoxin is effectiveness in the treatment of cardiac failure and sinus rhythm patients

Due to differences in treatment effect in studies on the effectiveness of digoxin in patients with congestive heart failure in sinus rhythm, a cross-over placebo-controlled randomized double blind clinical trial was performed. Thirty one patients, without previous treatment with digoxin, in New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class II to IV, with a dilated left ventricle and/or ventricular systolic dysfunction were included. Patients received digoxin, adjusted for blood levels, or placebo, during an 8 week period, prior to crossing over to the other treatment for another 8 weeks. The order of tretments was randomly allocated. Outcome measurement were performed at the end of each 8 week period. Digoxin, compared with placebo, improved NYHA class, 6,9 por ciento vs 41.4 por ciento (p=0.013) and increased the treadmill exercise time, 406 ñ 204 s vs 484 ñ 185 s (p=0.003). During the digoxin treatment the left ventricular and systolic diameter was reduced from 52.9 ñ 8.9 to 50.1 ñ 9.7 mm (p=0.009). No significant difference was observed in the left ventricular end diastolic diameter (LVED) of the left ventricle and in a estimation of quality of life. In conclusion, digoxin treatment produced a significant improvement in functional capacity, exercise time and left ventricular performance

Anticoagulantes / Anticoagulants

La trombosis es un evento vascular que se evidencia por la disfunción del órgano afectado. Por esa razón los fármacos anticoagulantes tienen un amplio espectro de indicaciones en diversas circunstancias patológicas. Como sus efectos no están exentos de riesgos, existe considerable controversia acerca de sus reales indicaciones, dosificación, asi como sobre la duración de las terapias. En la presente revisión, se presenta en forma muy resumida el uso de estos medicamentos en algunos de los cuadros patológicos de mayor interes para el médico internista general. Entre ellos destacan las trombosis venosas profundas, la embolia pulmonar, la cardiopatía coronaria, las valvulopatías, las prótesis valvulares, la arritmia completa por fibrilación auricular, etc