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Biomedical subjects

L E Watts

Publications and source records attributed to L E Watts.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Intracardiac myxomas: twenty-year echocardiographic experience with review of the literature.

We reviewed the echocardiograms of 35 patients with intracardiac myxomas. Patient data were combined from two geographically distant laboratories. No significant variations in the patient profiles were encountered. Most patients were white (33 of 35) with a mean age of 45 years. The diagnosis was suspected on clinical grounds alone in only six of 35 patients before the echocardiogram was done. M-mode recordings were the primary echocardiographic modality available in the first 16 patients, whereas two-dimensional studies were also done in the others. Continuous and pulsed wave Doppler echocardiography were added in eight of the most recent studies. In one patient color flow imaging from both transthoracic and esophageal approaches was possible to better visualize a large left atrial tumor. Thirty-three patients had solitary tumors (29 left atrial, three right atrial, and one left ventricular), and two had multiple tumors. The most characteristic finding, as expected, was the demonstration of abnormal mass echoes produced by the myxoma tissue. Several interesting features not previously emphasized in the literature included abnormal notching of the interventricular septum and posterior left ventricular wall probably produced by displacement from the larger mobile left atrial tumors dropping into the mitral sleeve. This was best appreciated by the M-mode recordings. In one patient with an associated atrial septal defect, movement of the tumor into the defect appeared to alter the expected downward displacement into the mitral orifice. In the patients who were studied by two-dimensional, Doppler, or color flow imaging, tumor movement was evidenced by abnormal frequency shifts, and dispersion of flow around the tumor mass was readily appreciated. Surgical removal was performed in all patients. Follow-up echocardiograms were done postoperatively ranging up to 17 years. Recurrent tumors occurred in two patients, both of whom had congenital myxomas. Echocardiography is proving to be an unparalleled tool in the diagnosis of intracardiac tumors.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Open mitral commissurotomy: long-term results with echocardiographic correlation.

Over 11 years, 91 patients with isolated mitral stenosis underwent open mitral commissurotomy. Twenty-nine were 50 or more years old; 15 had had prior commissurotomies. Four (4.4%) died perioperatively; 87 were followed for one to nine years (average: five years). Overall actuarial survival was 94% at 5 years. Sixty-nine patients (79%) were NYHA Functional Class (FC) I or II at latest follow-up. Arterial embolism occurred in five patients; 14 patients (16%) had a second valve operation. Patients who remain in FC I or II and who are free of embolism and reoperation are classified as complication-free. Actuarial analysis demonstrated 76% to be so classified at five years after operation. Actuarial curves show that age older than 40 years, sex, previous commissurotomy, and "radical" versus simple open mitral commissurotomy did not influence survival or the incidence of good results. Follow-up M-mode and 2D echocardiograms were obtained in 42 patients. The estimated mitral orifice accurately separated FC I patients (orifice equal to or larger than 2 cm2) from FC II and FC III patients (orifice smaller than 2 cm2), and showed that echocardiographic evidence of a 2 cm2 or larger mitral orifice correlates with a good result.

Adult↗