For control of DSRCT, our experience supports intensive use of HD-CAV, aggressive surgery to resect visible disease, radiotherapy to high-risk sites, and myeloablative chemotherapy with stem-cell rescue in selected cases.

BackgroundParavalvular aortic regurgitation (PAR) following transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is well acknowledged. Despite improvements, echocardiographic measurement of PAR largely remains qualitative. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) directly quantifies AR with accuracy and reproducibility. We compared CMR and transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) analysis of pre-operative and post-operative aortic regurgitation in patients undergoing both TAVI and surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR).MethodsEighty-seven patients with severe aortic stenosis undergoing TAVI (56 patients) or AVR were recruited. CMR (1.5 T) and transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) were carried out pre-operatively and a median of 6 days post-operatively. The CMR protocol included regurgitant aortic flows using through-plane phase-contrast velocity. None/trivial, mild, moderate and severe AR by CMR was defined as ≤8%, 9-20%, 21–39%, >40% regurgitant fractions respectively.ResultsPre- and post-operative left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was similar. Post-procedure aortic regurgitant fraction using CMR was higher in the TAVI group (TAVI 16 ± 13% vs. AVR 4 ± 4%, p < 0.01). Comparing CMR to TTE, 27 of 56 (48%) TAVI patients had PAR which was at least one grade more severe on CMR than TTE (Z = −4.56, p <0.001). Sensitivity analysis confirmed the difference in PAR grade between TTE and CMR in the TAVI group (Z = −4.49, p < 0.001).ConclusionWhen compared to CMR based quantitative analysis, TTE underestimated the degree of paravalvular aortic regurgitation. This underestimation may in part explain the findings of increased mortality associated with mild or greater AR by TTE in the PARTNER trial. Paravalvular aortic regurgitation post TAVI assessed as mild by TTE may in fact be more severe.

Since its early days, cardiac surgery has typically involved large incisions with complete access to the heart and the great vessels. After the popularization of the minimally invasive techniques in general surgery, cardiac surgeons began to experiment with minimal access techniques in the early 1990s. Although the goals of minimally invasive cardiac surgery (MICS) are fairly well established as decreased pain, shorter hospital stay, accelerated recuperation, improved cosmesis, and cost effectiveness, a strict definition of minimally invasive cardiac surgery has been more elusive. Minimally invasive cardiac surgery started with mitral valve procedures and then gradually expanded towards other valve procedures, coronary artery bypass grafting, and various types of simple congenital heart procedures. In this paper, the authors attempt to focus on the evolution, techniques, results, and the future perspective of minimally invasive mitral valve surgery (MIMVS).