Word: mitral
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...technique, called balloon mitral valvuloplasty, is performed by introducing a deflated balloon into the heart. The balloon is attached to the end of a catheter inserted into a leg vein. Once guided into a place by X-rays, the balloon is inflated, expanding the valve and clearing the blockage...
...require no treatment, and a high-frequency hearing loss in both ears for which he does not need a hearing aid. He sleeps seven hours a night and is an avid swimmer, trying to squeeze in a 50-lap session each day. In 1974 Anderson was diagnosed as having mitral valve prolapse, a slight deformation of one of the four valves of the heart. The condition, not generally dangerous, is thought to be shared by up to 15% of Americans, but it produces a distinct heart noise, and so is known as the "systolic-click-murmur" syndrome...
...naval doctor conducted the physical, he saw that the hands of the man on the table shook noticeably, though he was only 62. His circulation was slow, his blood pressure was about 25 points high (186 over 108), and there was a pronounced murmur in his heart as the mitral valve failed to close properly. He showed signs of an advanced case of hardening of the arteries. Listening with a stethoscope to the labored breathing, the doctor decided that the man had fluid in his lungs. The doctor's conclusion...
These conclusions are supported by the British Medical Journal, in which surgeons describe four auto-accident cases seen at Harefield Hospital in Middlesex. In two of them the aorta was ruptured; in one, the injury was to the mitral valve, and in one the septum (wall) between two of the heart's chambers was torn. Only a decade ago, there would have been little hope for the victims, but that is no longer true. In all four cases surgery was successful-including two instances in which the aorta was patched with a Dacron graft...
...Heart Surgeon Earle B. Kay had a third technique ready to try. At St. Vincent Charity Hospital he had recently set up a bank of human heart valves removed from accident victims and waiting to be used in an ingenious manner developed by his associate, Dr. Akio Suzuki. Because mitral valves have proved unsatisfactory for transplants, Dr. Kay selected an aortic valve from the bank, turned it upside down so that it would permit blood flow in the proper direction, and stitched it in place. There was little danger of transplant rejection, because heart-valve tissue has a negligible blood...