Third lead for ICD

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Q; My husband is 70 and in great shape.  He has and EF of 25% and had a two lead ICD 3years ago at Cleveland Clinic.  Last year they tried to add a lead but were not able to because of scar tissue.  The other option was surgery through the chest.  His doctor has said that the risks would not …

A Tale of Two Valves

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Two percutaneous heart valve procedures have been introduced recently, the Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) and the mitral clip, both still investigational devices. One promises a solution to a very difficult problem, the other doesn’t. TAVI is presently researched for select patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis (narrowing of the aortic valve opening) who are not candidates for surgery and …

I have three leaking heart valves

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Q: I have 3 valves leaking one is mild and 2 are moderate. i also have high blood pressure and high cholesterol.I am not really understanding what this means. i do know that my mother passed away at 53 from a heart attack but not sure what that means as far as my health goes. would like to know more …

Sudden death in young athletes

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Q: My grandson has a bicuspid heart valve.he is very active..wants to be on the football team. the coach is really encouraging him to join.iam very worried that something will happen . the whole summer is mainly practice. not much of a break. in fifth grade the coach almost caused him to pass out due to running.please let me know …

Funny chest pains

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Hi, I am a 36 year old male with no real history of any medical problems.  I have a poor family history of heart attacks/bypasses.  My father had a large one at 62.   Lately, I have been having very small sharp pains in my chest/heart area.  These seem to occur randomly.    I have been chalking them up to being stress …

This new technique of Mitral valve repair with a mitral-valve clip does NOT offer any advantage

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Percutaneous Repair or Surgery for Mitral Regurgitation (the EVEREST II study), published in the NEJM on April 4th, compares the use of a mitral-valve clip with traditional surgery for repair or replacement of a leaking mitral valve. The authors concluded: “Although percutaneous repair was less effective at reducing mitral regurgitation than conventional surgery, the procedure was associated with superior safety …

Teenage Obesity and future diabetes, heart disease

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Obese teenagers are at risk for diabetes and heart disease in the future In a new study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine (1), 37,000 Israeli teen aged men  were followed for 17 years. Body Mass Index (BMI) was recorded regularly during the follow-up period. A higher BMI at age 17 was associated with an increased risk for …