Bioprosthetic valve thrombosis in carcinoid heart disease.

Tricuspid regurgitation in carcinoid syndrome leads to significant morbidity and mortality that may warrant a tricuspid valve replacement. However, for patients with high serotonin levels and known hypercoagulable risks, the optimum timing for surgery and postoperative anticoagulation approaches remain unclear. High serotonin-triggered hypercoagulability makes prosthetic valves susceptible to thrombosis. Despite appropriate management with a somatostatin analog, some patients continue to have high markers of serotonin that causes platelet aggregation and rapid clot formation. In severely symptomatic patients who require valve surgery, it may not be feasible to postpone surgery until these metabolites are normalized, which may add a substantial risk for postoperative valve thrombosis to an otherwise uneventful procedure. In some, there is a significant need to predict and prevent bioprosthetic valve thrombosis in carcinoid heart disease and to identify best anticoagulation practices across a spectrum of its complex coagulation dynamics and clinical presentation.

Review article: implications of vascular aging.

Chronological age is a well-established risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases. The changes that accumulate in the vasculature with age, however, are highly variable. It is now increasingly recognized that indices of vascular health are more reliable than age per se in predicting adverse cardiovascular outcomes. The variation in the accrual of these age-related vascular changes is a function of multiple genetic and environmental factors. In this review, we highlight some of the pathophysiological mechanisms that characterize the vascular aging phenotype. Furthermore, we provide an overview of the key outcome studies that address the value of these vascular health indices in general and discuss potential effects on perioperative cardiovascular outcomes.