AMES, Iowa – You’re in the middle of the aorta, the body’s pipeline for oxygen-rich blood, looking back toward the heart’s primary pump, the left ventricle. The ventricle muscle contracts and the ...

Valve replacement and repair are the only methods of managing severe valvular heart disease, but both often require repeated surgeries that are expensive, disruptive, and life-threatening. Most ...

After heart valve surgery, focus on a nutrient-dense, high fiber diet rich in whole grains, fruits, nuts, and heart-healthy proteins and fats. Heart valve replacement surgery involves replacing a ...

When pediatric cardiac surgeons evaluate options for their smallest patients with the most severe cardiac birth defects, they don’t have a lot of good choices. For conditions such as truncus ...

A leaky heart valve occurs when a heart valve doesn’t close properly, allowing blood to flow backward. During pregnancy, this condition can affect circulation and increase strain on your heart. A ...

An 11-year-old boy recently became the first person in the world to have an artificial heart valve replaced with a living donor heart valve. Preston Porter, who has lived for the past near-decade with ...

There are three types of bicuspid aortic valves — types 0, 1, and 2. Experts classify these types based on whether the leaflets of the valve have fused to form a ridge. A bicuspid aortic valve is a ...

A study led by the University of Bristol, Bristol, England, has found that mechanical heart valves provide better long-term survival than biological heart valves in patients aged 50-70 years. The ...

A grandmother has been given a “second chance at life” after undergoing a world-first heart valve operation. Julia Butterworth, 53, had two valves in her heart replaced in 2007 after doctors detected ...

Mechanical heart valves are vital in restoring cardiac function in patients with valvular disease, and their performance is intimately linked to fluid dynamic phenomena. In these devices, complex flow ...