Echocardiographic changes in patients with a cylinder mitral valve replacement: Preliminary analysis.

ABSTRACT

AIMS: Cylinder mitral valve construct (cMVC) is new technique for replacing the mitral valve compared to more traditional mitral valve replacement (MVR) procedures. Goal of this study was to describe echocardiographic changes over time in patients undergoing a cMVC. Secondary goal was to compare echocardiographic changes in patients that underwent a cMVC to a group of patients that underwent a MVR. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of patients undergoing a cMVC was performed. Demographics, discharge echocardiogram, and recent echocardiogram vales were evaluated. Age matched patients undergoing a MVR were assessed. Discharge and recent echocardiographic parameters were compared within the cMVC group. cMVC and MVR values were compared between groups. RESULTS: Five cMVC patients were studied. Age at surgery for the cMVC was 4.3 ± 4.2 years (median 2.2, .8-10.3 years). Time interval from hospital discharge echocardiogram to the most recent echocardiogram was 1.2 ± .7 years (median 1.0, .6-2.0 years). Mean mitral valve gradient significantly increased over time (3.6 ± 3.0 mm Hg vs 7.6 ± 2.9 mm Hg). There were significant improvements in left ventricular diameters, systolic sphericity index, shortening fraction, and ejection fraction over time. There were no significant differences in demographics, discharge echocardiogram values, and follow up echocardiogram values between the cMVC and MVR groups. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, echocardiographic indices of left ventricular function improved over time in patients undergoing cMVC. In addition, there were no significant differences between cMVC and MVR patients in echocardiographic values. Studies with a larger patient sample with longer follow up are needed to determine if cMVC continues to have comparable echocardiographic results to MVR.