Editorial: Risk Modelling for Heart Valve Disease
Samer A. M. Nashef FRCS

A Simple Predictive Model of Prolonged Intensive Care Unit Stay after Surgery for
Acquired Heart Valve Disease
Jianping Xu MD, Yipeng Ge MD, Shengshou Hu MD, Yunhu Song MD, Hansong Sun MD, Ping Liu MD

Predicting Immediate and Late Outcome after Surgery for Mitral Valve Regurgitation with EuroSCORE
Jouni Heikkinen MD, Fausto Biancari MD, Jari Satta MD, Esa Salmela MD, Martti Mosorin MD, Tatu Juvonen MD, Martti Lepojärvi MD

Degenerative Mitral Valve Insufficiency Long Term after Heart Transplantation: Clinical and Surgical Considerations
Siamak Mohammadi MD, François Dagenais MD, Mario Sénéchal MD, Marie-Hélène LeBlanc MD, Christian Couture MD, Pierre Voisine MD, Daniel Doyle MD

Impact of Left Atrial Size Reduction and Endocardial Radiofrequency Ablation on Continuous Atrial Fibrillation in Patients Undergoing Concomitant Cardiac Surgery: Three-Year Results
Mirela Scherer MD, Panagiotis Therapidis, Thomas Wittlinger MD, Aleksandra Miskovic MD, Anton Moritz MD

Repair of Mitral Periprosthetic Leak Secondary to Severe Annular Calcification
Yoshimasa Sakamoto MD, Kazuhiro Hashimoto MD, Hiroshi Okuyama MD, Shinichi Ishii MD, Shingo Taguchi MD, Hiroshi Kagawa MD, Kiyozo Morita MD

Successful Repair of Late Left Ventricular Rupture after Mitral Valve Replacement
Antoine Digonnet MD, Erwan Flecher MD, Stéphane Aubert MD, Alain Pavie MD

One-Hundred Aortic Valve Replacements in Octogenarians: Outcomes and Risk Factors for
Early Mortality
Stefano Urso MD, Rafael Sadaba MD, Ernesto Greco MD, Ivana Pulitani MD, Luis Alvarez MD, Arantxa Juaristi MD, Juan J. Goiti MD

Aortic Valve Leaflet Sizer: A New Device for Aortic Valve Sparing
Michel R. Labrosse PhD, Carsten J. Beller MD

Tricuspidation of Quadricuspid Aortic Valve: Case Reports
Hugues Jeanmart MD, Laurent de Kerchove MD, Firas El Bitar MD, David Glineur MD, Michel VanDyck MD, Philippe Noirhomme MD, Gebrine El Khoury MD

Single-Center Outcome Analysis of 1,161 Patients with St. Jude Medical and ATS Open Pivot Mechanical Heart Valves
Franziska F. Bernet, Doan Baykut, Leticia Grize, Hans-Reinhard Zerkowski

Xenograft Calcification in Reiter's Syndrome
Herko Grubitzsch MD, Sven Beholz MD, Pascal M. Dohmen MD, Simon Dushe MD, Jianshi Liu MD, Wolfgang Konertz MD

Chronic Type A Dissection in a Pulmonary Autograft
Abdullah Kaya MD, Robin H. Heijmen MD, Willem Vreuls MD, Cornelis A. Seldenrijk MD,
Marc A. Schepens MD

Biomechanical Characterization of Decellularized and Cross-Linked Bovine Pericardium
Dilip Oswal FRCS, Sotirios Korossis PhD, Saeed Mirsadraee PhD, Hilox Wilcox PhD, Kevin Watterson FRACS, John Fisher PhD, Eileen Ingham PhD

The Use of Collagenase III for the Isolation of Porcine Aortic Valvular Interstitial Cells: Rationale and Optimization
Elizabeth H. Stephens BS, Joshua L. Carroll, K. Jane Grande-Allen PhD

Executive Summary
Prevention of Thromboembolic Events: The Role of Point of Care Management
David Fitzmaurice MD, Dieter Horstkotte MD

Heart Valve Surgery in a Very High-Risk Population: A Preliminary Experience in Awake Patients
Tomaso Bottio MD, Gianluigi Bisleri MD, Paolo Piccoli MD, Alberto Negri MD, Aldo Manzato MD, Claudio Muneretto MD

Mitral Annuloplasty as a Ventricular Restoration Method for the Failing Left Ventricle: A Pilot Study
Tadaaki Koyama MD,Yoshiharu Soga MD, Oriyanhan Unimonh MD, Kazunobu Nishimura MD,
Masashi Komeda MD

Early Mechanical Mitral Valve Thrombosis in a Patient with Warfarin Resistance
Ayse Saatci Yasar MD, Yucel Balbay MD, Orhan Maden MD, Hatice Sasmaz MD

Culture-Negative Infective Endocarditis Caused by Aerococcus urinae
Michal Slany MD, TomAS Freiberger MD, Petr Pavlik MD, Jan Cerny MD

Ministernotomy Valve-Sparing Removal of Aortic Fibroelastoma
Antonino M. Grande MD, Massimo Massetti MD, Nicoletta Castiglione MD, Mario Viganò MD

Primary Hemangioma of the Mitral Valve: An Unusual Presentation
Luigi Muzzi MD, Giuseppe Davoli MD, Luigi Specchia MD, Mario Chiavarelli MD

Aortic Valve Stenosis Associated with Bazin's Disease
Koichi Sughimoto MD, Kiyoharu Nakano MD, Akihiko Gomi MD, Hayao Nakatani MD, Yoshitugu Nakamura MD, Atsuhiko Sato MD, Michiho Adachi MD, Kazuhiro Takeda MD, Kazumasa Harada MD

In response to

Wilhelmi MH, Bara C, Kofidis T, Wilhelmi M, Pichlmaier M, Haverich A. Long-term cardiac allograft valves after heart transplant are functionally and structurally preserved, in contrast to homografts and bioprostheses. J Heart Valve Dis 2006;6:777-782

Reply

Mathias H. Wilhelmi MD