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Biomedical subjects

C Cabrol

Publications and source records attributed to C Cabrol.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources

Factors affecting survival after heterotopic heart transplantation.

In an attempt to identify the factors that influence survival after heterotopic heart transplantation, 42 consecutive recipients of heterotopic heart transplant were reviewed. Preoperative pulmonary artery pressures, pulmonary vascular resistance, and donor age significantly differed between hospital survivors and nonsurvivors. Postoperative survival analysis between pairs of groups of patients divided by each of these variables disclosed a significant difference, which confirmed the effects of these variables on survival. Evolution of pulmonary hemodynamics was compared between patients with preoperative pulmonary artery diastolic pressure greater than 25 mm Hg (pulmonary hypertension; n = 22) or less than 25 mm Hg (nonpulmonary hypertension; n = 20). Despite marked differences in preoperative pulmonary hemodynamics, pulmonary artery pressures were dramatically reduced immediately after transplantation, and pulmonary vascular resistance diminished to upper normal limits at 10 days when there were no longer differences in pulmonary vascular resistance between the two groups. Immediate deaths were related to left ventricular failure, and the incidence was similar between the groups. Despite such normalization of pulmonary hemodynamics, patients with preoperative pulmonary hypertension experienced more frequent ventricular fibrillation, required longer respiratory support, and developed lethal pulmonary or systemic infection, which resulted in a 32% (7/22) hospital survival rate compared with 90% (18/20) in patients without pulmonary hypertension. Despite the dramatic improvement in pulmonary hemodynamics, heterotopic heart failed to demonstrate the expected advantages because of frequent pulmonary complications and infection, which resulted in failure to improve the prognosis of patients with preoperative pulmonary hypertension.

Actuarial Analysis↗

Plasma concentrations of atrial natriuretic peptide in patients with artificial and transplanted hearts.

Plasma atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay 1 to 12 days after operation in six patients with artificial hearts. The mean levels were significantly higher in artificial heart recipients (58.2 pg.ml-1) than in controls (12.6 pg.ml-1). The mechanism underlying the raised values is not clear, although it is suggested that elevated atrial pressure may have been the stimulus for higher ANP release. In 3 patients plasma ANP concentrations were also measured 1 to 5 days after orthotopic transplantation. In all of them ANP concentrations had increased by 20 to 74% despite lower right atrial pressure. An increase in atrial tissue mass may have contributed to the raised plasma ANP after orthotopic transplantation. It also suggests that the functioning sympathetic nervous system is not a necessary condition for ANP release.

Adult↗

Doppler echocardiography for the diagnosis of acute cardiac allograft rejection.

To evaluate the changes in left ventricular filling associated with acute cardiac rejection, serial Doppler echocardiographic examinations were prospectively performed on the same day as endomyocardial biopsy in 55 consecutive patients who successfully underwent orthotopic transplantation and were free of a previous episode of rejection. On average, 8.6 Doppler studies per patient were performed within a 6 month period after transplantation. Recordings of mitral flow were made with pulsed Doppler and two-dimensional echocardiography from an apical four chamber view; isovolumic relaxation time, peak early mitral flow velocity and pressure half-time were measured. The patients were classified into two groups on the basis of the histopathologic findings: group I (25 patients with at least one episode of mild or moderate rejection) and group II (30 patients without rejection). In group I, rejection was associated with a significant decrease of isovolumic relaxation time (p less than 0.005) and especially pressure half-time (p less than 0.0005) with no change in heart rate and peak early mitral flow velocity. In group II, Doppler indexes remained unchanged. These changes were not associated with alterations in left ventricular systolic function assessed by echocardiography. Isovolumic relaxation time and pressure half-time both returned to values similar to baseline values after immunosuppressive therapy (p less than 0.05 and p less than 0.0005, respectively). With 20% decrease in pressure half-time as a criterion for acute rejection, sensitivity was 88%, specificity 87% and positive predictive value 85%. Thus, Doppler echocardiographic evaluation of left ventricular diastolic function provides an excellent tool for early detection of acute rejection and noninvasive monitoring of the cardiac transplant recipient.

Adolescent↗

Clinical application and patient selection in the use of a total artificial heart as a bridge for transplantation.

Between April 1986 and July 1987, 21 patients underwent orthotopic implantation of a total artificial heart (Jarvik 7) at La Pitié Hospital. There were 18 men and 3 women with a mean age of 37.3 +/- 11.4 years. The device implanted was the 70 ml version in 10 patients and the 100 ml version in 11 patients. In the results, three variables were analysed: age, acute myocardial decompensation or chronic myocardial failure, and aetiology of the 21 patients treated. 10 (47.6%) had adequate support and were successfully transplanted. Eleven patients (52.4%) died during circulatory support. The main causes of death were sepsis and multiple organ failure. In only one patient was a mismatch between the heart and chest cavity present. There was no clinical evidence of thromboembolic complications. Patients of 40 years of age and less have an 80% chance of being successfully transplanted in comparison with a 25% success rate in older patients. Patients that developed sudden cardiac decompensation have a 75% success rate for transplantation in comparison with 44.4% success rate in patients with a chronic illness. Early implantation of the device, before the development of irreversible damage in other organs, is recommended in younger patients with acute or chronic disease and in older patients with acute myocardial failure. The use of this device is contraindicated in immunosuppressed patients due to the high risk of infection.

Adult↗

Calcified aortic stenosis: operative risk.

Surgery of the aortic valve due to calcified aortic stenosis has been a well known procedure for many years. Continuous clinical improvement after isolated aortic valve replacement can be documented in the majority of patients followed up for several years. Surgery of this type in association with other procedures (coronary artery bypass, mitral valve replacement, etc.) has become more and more common. For this reason we have analysed the operative risk of a group of patients with calcified aortic stenosis that were operated on at La Pitié Hospital from 1980 to 1984.

Age Factors↗

Coronary artery spasm in a transplant patient.

The mechanism of coronary spasm is poorly understood. We report a case of coronary artery spasm in a cardiac transplant patient. Pharmacologic testing indicated denervation of the patient's heart. Therefore coronary artery spasm may occur despite cardiac denervation. This case demonstrates that intact autonomic nervous system and cardiac innervation are not essential for coronary artery spasm.

Adult↗

Prevalence and causes of long-lasting hepatic dysfunction after heart transplantation: a series of 80 patients.

The long-term follow-up of 80 heart transplant patients (70 men, 10 women) from January 1982 to July 1985 who had received cyclosporine (CsA) showed a high incidence of mild to severe liver dysfunction. Fifty patients (62.5%) had long-lasting postoperative biological disturbances (alanine amino transferase greater than 2N and/or alkaline phosphatase greater than 1.5N for 3 months or more). Most patients were asymptomatic; eight were icteric, and one had arthralgia. The most common biological feature consisted of isolated elevation of ALAT (27 cases). Assessment of causes led to a definite etiology in 42 patients: 7 cardiac failure, 13 HBsAg-positive liver disease (26%) (chronic persistent hepatitis 8, chronic active hepatitis 2, subacute necrosis 2). Fourteen patients (28%) sustained non-A, non-B (NANB) hepatitis (chronic persistent hepatitis 5, chronic active hepatitis 1, cirrhosis 1), and 7 (14%) sustained a drug-related hepatitis. Liver biopsy and complete virus screening was contributive to the diagnosis in nearly all patients. Additionally, prolonged impairment of liver function tests occurred in 62% of heart transplant recipients, mostly during the first 6 postoperative months. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and NANB hepatitis accounted for 26% and 28% of the cases of liver dysfunction, respectively; drug-induced hepatitis may have been involved in 14% of the cases. Complete hepatitis virus screening should be performed before heart transplant and in any case of abnormal liver function posttransplantation. HBV vaccination prior to heart transplant is recommended in HBsAg- and HBcAb-negative candidates for heart replacement. Long-term follow-up of these patients is mandatory to assess the severity of these liver dysfunctions.

Adolescent↗

Surgical treatment of ascending aortic pathology.

Among the first 10,200 valvular replacements performed in our unit, 288 complex repairs of the ascending aorta were done for various aortic pathology. Aneurysms of the ascending aorta were the most frequent; 53 supracoronary artery aneurysms with aortic valvular insufficiency were treated by the separate replacement of the aortic valve and the supracoronary ascending aorta; 206 annulo-aortic ectasia had total and combined replacement of the ascending aorta and the aortic valve with a personal modification of the Bentall's technique using an 8-mm diameter Dacron graft to perform the reimplantation of the coronary arteries on the composite aortic grafts. The operative mortality for the first 100 patients was 4% and for the entire 206 patients, 6%. Late mortality during a follow-up period ranging from 18 months to 8 years was 11%. The actuarial survival rate at 8 years is 75%; 25 patients restudied by angiography demonstrated satisfactory results with neither stenosis nor aneurysm on the coronary graft but a recurrent or persisting chronic distal aortic dissection in four patients. In 26 cases of aortic valvular endocarditis, large abscesses of the aortic annulus involved the aortic root. In 11, the aortic repair consisted of the insertion of a subcoronary valved conduit (two early deaths, two late deaths, one reoperation, seven good results--maximum follow-up of eight years). Twelve patients had a supracoronary valved conduit with four early deaths, one late death, and two reoperations; seven are alive and well, two to six years later. Three patients previously operated had a left ventricular abdominal aorta valved conduit; two of them are alive and well up to six years later. In three patients with iterative aortic paravalvular leak (recurring three or four times), ablation of the aortic insufficiency was obtained by interposition of a composite valved graft in the ascending aorta.

Abscess↗

Mid-term results of the Liotta-Bioimplant low profile bioprostheses.

Low profile bioprostheses are particularly useful for certain anatomical conditions. In some patients with rheumatic aortic insufficiency, an important dilatation of the aortic annulus is present, even when the subcoronary aorta is not enlarged. In these cases, the bioimplant heart valve with its low height avoids any threat to the aortic wall or to the coronary ostia. Frequently, the left ventricular cavity is not enlarged in patients with mitral stenosis. The characteristic low profile of this valve avoids left outflow obstruction as well as traumatism of the left ventricular wall. In the tricuspid position, this design is particularly useful because it leaves the right ventricular cavity totally free. From February 1981 to December 1983, 198 bioimplant (LIOTTA) low profile bioprostheses were implanted in 184 patients. There were 63 aortic (AVR), 101 mitral (MVR), 14 mitral and aortic (MAVR), and 6 tricuspid (TVR) valve replacements. Early mortality (30 days) was 6% (AVR = 1.6%; MVR = 8.9%; MAVR = 7.1%; TVR = 0). The 181 survivors were followed over a period of 3-84 months (643 patient-years). The thromboembolic complication rate was low (0.7%/patient-year) and 96.9% +/- 1.4% of patients were free of thromboembolism (AVR = 98.2% +/- 1.7%; MVR = 97.6% +/- 1.7%). Five years after implant, 91.7% +/- 3.2% of patients were free of valve failure (AVR = 93.7% +/- 4.4%; MVR = 88.8% +/- 5.2%). Actuarial analysis shows an expected survival at 5 years (average) of 87.2% +/- 3.4% (AVR = 87.4% +/- 6%; MVR = 87.3% +/- 4%) with an actuarial rate of freedom from reoperation of 87.5% +/- 3.5%).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent↗

[Contribution of excimer laser to coronary angioplasty].

Reports on the problems encountered with thermal laser system in angioplasty have prompted us to test an excimer Xe-Cl laser of 308 nm wavelength and 20 ns impulses on preparations of healthy and atheromatous coronary arteries, the purpose of the study being to quantify the adequate parameters required for angioplasty. We effectively used optic fibres of different diameters--a method which has not yet been reported in medical literature. Our choice of an ultraviolet laser was justified on theoretical grounds: essentially its mode of photo-ablation devoid of thermal effects and proportional to the number of inter- and intramolecular bonds destroyed. The photo-ablation threshold we measured being 1.40 J/cm2, we micrometrically determined the volume of matter removed by various combinations of energy intensities and numbers of impulses, as well as the undesirable effects of such combinations. We found that with an energy surface density of 4.23 J/cm2 the depth of ablation was directly proportional to the number of impulses (between 20 and 100). Under these experimental conditions, the ablation produced by the Xe-Cl laser system was 14 microns per impulse in depth, and of the same diameter as that of the optic fibre used. Virtually identical data were obtained in healthy, fibrotic, atheromatous and calcified tissues. Undesirable effects, i.e. coagulation necrosis, only appeared with high-intensity energies irrelevant to the study. No lesion of the parietal cells was observed, even in the vicinity of the ablation plane. Finally, the question of oncogenic effects raised with 193 nm laser beams does not seem to apply to the 308 nm wavelength.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Angioplasty, Balloon↗

[Morbidity and mortality seen in patients with a Hancock bioprosthesis, followed for more than 5 years. Experience at the La Pitié Hospital].

Between 1975 and 1983, 305 Hancock bioprostheses were implanted at the La Pitié Hospital, Paris, including 133 on the aortic valve and 172 on the mitral valve. The operative mortality rate was 6 p. 100 in patients with isolated aortic valve replacement and 12.8 p. 100 in patients with isolated mitral valve replacement (including 4 reoperations for mechanical valve thrombosis). 245 patients were followed up for a mean period of 5 1/2 years. The actuarial survival rate, operative mortality excluded, was 77.5 +/- 4.4 p. 100 in the aortic valve group and 76 +/- 4.4 p. 100 in the mitral valve group (non significant difference). Later after surgery, 8 embolic accidents (5 in the mitral valve group, 3 in the aortic valve group) occurred, and 20 patients developed endocarditis. Forty-nine patients required reoperation, 33 of them for deterioration of the bioprosthesis. The probability of being free from such deterioration varied significantly according to the patient's age at the time of the operation. In the aortic valve group this probability at 8 years was 97 p. 100 +/- 2.7 p. 100 for patients over 35 and 63.3 p. 100 +/- 1.7 p. 100 for patients under 35; the corresponding figures at 8 years in the mitral valve group were 80 p. 100 +/- 3.8 p. 100 for patients over 35 and 55.2 p. 100 +/- 2.2 p. 100 for patients under 35. There was no significant difference between the mitral and the aortic valve groups with regard to the percentage of prosthetic valve deterioration. The operative mortality rate in reoperations was 14.2 p. 100 irrespective of the cause of death.

Adult↗

[Evaluation by Doppler echocardiography of left ventricular diastolic function in acute graft rejection after heart transplantation].

In order to study abnormalities of left ventricular diastolic function (LVDF) in heart transplant patients and their possible association with graft rejection, 21 patients who had recently undergone orthotopic heart transplantation were evaluated prospectively, on the day of endomyocardial biopsy, by pulsed and continuous Doppler echocardiography (DEC). Investigation of the LVDF consisted of pulsed DEC of the mitral valve in apical projection (4 cavities) with measurement of isovolumetric relaxation time (IVR), peak velocity of rapid ventricular filling (E), peak velocity of graft atrial contraction (A) and transmitral gradient decrease half-time (mitral T1/2). Each patients had 5 DEC examinations on average over a 2-month period. In patients with subsevere to severe rejection mitral T1/2 decreased significantly from 76.46 +/- 11.6 ms in the absence of rejection to 47 +/- 13.7 ms during rejection (P less than 0.001). When mitral T1/2 decreased by 25 p. 100 or more between two successive DEC, rejection was present in 89 p. 100 of the cases. It is concluded that Doppler echocardiographic studies of left ventricular diastolic function provide useful information in the follow-up of heart transplant recipients and offer hopes, in a not too distant future, of non-invasive detection of cardiac graft rejection.

Diastole↗

[Traumatic tricuspid insufficiency. 5 cases].

Five men (mean age 39 years) were followed up for 6 to 60 months for tricuspid valve regurgitation caused by a front-to-back injury (in a car in four cases, in an aircraft in one case). The time elapsed between the accident and the signal symptoms varied from 28 days to 20 years. The condition was diagnosed on clinical data (stage 2) and on the results of echocardiography and cardiac catheterization. Four patients were operated upon and provided with a bioprosthetic valve. The post-operative period was marked by resolutive atrioventricular block in one case and inferior myocardial infarction in one case. Four points ought to be highlighted: 1. The long-term development of dilatation of the annulus, cicatricial fibrosis or altered left ventricular contractility; 2. The usefulness of pulsed Doppler echocardiography for the diagnosis and surgical indications (quantification of the regurgitation, right ventricular kinetics); 3. The adaptation of treatment to the lesion: repair whenever possible, or annuloplasty, or bioprosthetic valve replacement (mechanical valves must be excluded); 4. The time for surgery is difficult to determine in view of the asymptomatic period, which may be very long. The decision to operate is based on clinical, echocardiographic, haemodynamic and dromotropic (complete arrhythmia due to atrial fibrillation) data. This decision must be reached before right ventricular myocardial deterioration sets in.

Accidents, Aviation↗

[Spectroscopy of plasma by proton magnetic resonance during cardiac transplantation].

Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy of plasma indicates an alteration of proteolipid methyl and methylene resonances after heart transplantation. The intensity of these alterations is modulated by the transplant tolerance phenomena and allows the accurate detection of heart graft rejection. These results reinforce the analogy between the immunology of graft tolerance and the immunology of cancer or pregnancy where identical alterations have been identified.

Adult↗