engleski

HITS in patients with prosthetic heart valves

The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurence of HITS in patients with prosthetic heart valves and to correlate findings with clinical features. The frequency of HITS was examined by tanscranial Doppler in 22 patients who had a mitral (8), aortic (9) or both mitral and aortic (5) mechanical heart valve prosthesis implantation. HITS were detected in 12 (54.5 %) of the patients. Emboli positive were 62.5 % of the patients with a prosthetic mitral valve, 33.3 % with a prosthetic aortic valve and 80.0 % of patients with both mitral and aortic prosthetic heart valves. Most of the patients (77.3 %) had emboli signals of high intensity-over 24 dB. The total emboli count had no correlation with patient age, gender or duration since valve insertion. Microemboli can be detected in a substantially high number of patients with PHV. A significantly high number of patients with detectable emboli signals had a history of prior stroke or TIA. The detection of HITS in patients with a PHV by TCD may help to identify those at higher stroke-risk.

prosthetic heart valves; transcranial Doppler; HITS; cerebral emboli

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