Tehran University Medical Journal

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Background: Percutaneous Transeptal Mitral Commisurotomy (PTMC) has been used in treating mitral stenosis with variable success, its main complication being mitral incompetence. There is a need to define the subgroup of the patients who benefit mostly from the procedure. Methods: We studied 110 patients (age 17 to 60 years mean 33.2) with mitral stenosis. PTMC was performed though femoral vein. All patients underwent echocardiographic evaluation, both before and after the procedure. Clinical, hemodynamic and echocardiographic data were gathered and used to predict the outcome. Results: PTMC was successful in all 110 patients in alleviating the stenosis (mean transmitral gradient before procedure was 17.1 mmHg after procedure 4.4 mmHg). There was no mortality or major complication other than occurrence of mitral regurgitation in 9 cases. In this group only one patient subsequently needed a mitral valve replacement operation. The following parameters were found to have a significant correlation with the success rate of PTMC: lower age, shorter duration of illness, functional class III and IV, larger EF slope, smaller EPSS, smaller amplitude of valve motion, limitation of the posterior leaflet motion and negative history for open commisurotomy. The incidence of mitral regurgitation after procedure was found to be correlated with: atrial fibrillation rhythm before PTMC, lower age, longer duration of illness, more frequent relapse of rheumatic fever, functional class III and IV, less EF slope, limitation of the valve motion, larger left atrium, calcification of posterior leaflet and subvalvular extension. Conclusions: Balloon Mitral Valvuloplasty is an effective and relatively safe procedure in the management of the mitral stenosis. With the proper selection of the patients with the favorable outcome parameters, the rate of complication can be reduced.

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Prosthetic valve re-operation has greater mortality and morbidity than primary valve replacement. By recognition of factors influencing on causes of redo operation and preoperative survival, one can select appropriate prosthesis at primary valve replacement and when operation performed at appropriate time, surgical risk can be reduced.
Methods and Materials: Two hundred patients that underwent prosthetic valve re-operation from October 1991 through November 2001 were included in this study. There were 68 men and 132 women with the mean age of 42:tl 1.8 years. Structural failure was the commonest cause of bio-prosthesis replacement (93%). Valve thrombosis was the common cause of mechanical valve replacement (32%). Age younger Than 50 (P= 0.01) and interval after the first implantation more than 10 years (P= 0.01) affected bio-prosthesis degeneration.
Results: Atrial fibrillation (P<0.01), Older age especially more than 40 (P<0.05) and mitral position (P<0.01) affected mechanical valve thrombosis. Cross clamp time (P= 0.005), Tricuspid insufficiency (P = 0.001), NYHA IV (P = 0.005) and emergent operation (P= 0.001) were independent determinants of hospital mortality.
Conclusion: In conclusion, in patients with more than 10-years life expectancy and age younger than 50, mechanical valve can be selected for primary valve replacement. If operation performed before patients reach deteriorated condition, preoperative survival would be excellent.

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Background: Multislice computed tomography (MSCT) is a noninvasive method of detecting coronary artery disease (CAD). The purpose of the present study was to investigate the accuracy of 64-slice MSCT (64-MSCT) in daily practice, without patient selection.

Methods: Sixty-four consecutive suspected CAD patients underwent both 64-MSCT and quantitative coronary angiography (QCA). The CT system The mean time span between MSCT and QCA was 7.2±3.9 days. For the 64-MSCT, detection or exclusion of CAD, defined as one or more areas of >50% stenosis within major epicardial coronary arteries, the sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) were evaluated both per patient and per segment.

Results: Sixty-one of the 64 coronary CT angiograms (95%) were of diagnostic image quality. QCA showed significant CAD in 64% (39/61) of the patients, with the other 36% (22/61) showing nonsignificant disease or no disease. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, PPV, and NPV of 64-MSCT per patient were 92%, 86%, 90%, 92% and 96%, respectively. By the per-segment analysis, 695 of 791 coronary artery segments were assessable (88%). Of these, 64-MSCT showed a sensitivity of 80%, specificity of 92%, accuracy of 90%, PPV of 65%, and NPV of 96%, respectively, in detecting CAD.

Conclusions: Both per patient and per segment analyses for coronary 64-MSCT showed a higher diagnostic accuracy than QCA. This suggests 64-MSCT should primarily be used for risk stratification on a per patient basis as a noninvasive gate-keeper diagnostic method.

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Results: After determining the content and face validity, a tool was obtained with 16 True/False items in the knowledge section (with one score for each correct answer and the total score range from 0 to 16) and 16 five-point Likert scale items in the behavior section (with each question score range from 0 to 3 and the total behavior score range from 0 to 48, the lower score defined safer behavior). The correlation coefficient of the scale scores in the test-retest method was calculated to be 0.880 (P<0.001) and 0.951 (P<0.001) in the sections of knowledge and behavior, respectively. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.809 for the section of knowledge, 0.756 for the section of behavior, and 0.782 for the whole questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis confirmed the existence of 4 factors in the knowledge section and 3 factors in the behavior section. Conclusion: The present 32-item questionnaire was designed based on experts' opinions and important statements of patients about sexual health, simple scoring, good reliability and validity, is a suitable tool for assessing the safe sex knowledge and behavior in patients with severe mental illnesses.