Hi everybody,

I just received a note from the Patient Education Team at the Cleveland Clinic about a new, online tool for patients with mitral valve regurgitation. The tool is pretty neat for learning about mitral valve regurgitation, the severity of mitral regurgitation, echocardiogram results, ejection fractions, heart dilation and atrial fibrillation.

Ultimately, this new Mitral Regurgitation Tool uses a series of interactive questions to determine whether-or-not you are currently a candidate for surgery. The tool leverages the current guidelines of the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology in determining your situation.

If you would like to use the Mitral Regurgitation Tool, click here.

Keep on tickin!

I just wanted to send my thoughts and prayers to Beverly Simmons of Fullerton, California, as she continues her early recovery at St. Jude’s hospital.

For those of you who have not visited Bev’s Heart Valve Journal yet, she had aortic valve replacement – using a pig (porcine) valve – on February 16, 2010. (Bev suffered from aortic stenosis.)

Beverly Simmons, 83, Heart Valve Replacement Patient

Although Bev, who celebrated her 83rd birthday in the hospital, recently received a “clean bill of health” from her doctors, the past few weeks have been filled with several ups and downs – including an emergency room visit days after her surgery.

That said, thanks to all of you who have posted over 275 comments in Bev’s Guestbook. I know she appreciates reading your words of encouragement and love.

To learn more about her unique story, please visit Bev’s Heart Valve Journal and her Guestbook.

Keep on tickin’ Bev!

Hi everybody,

I just learned that my book, The Patient’s Guide To Heart Valve Surgery, is currently sold out at Amazon.com. FYI, I’m not exactly sure when Amazon will be getting more copies. My guess would be 2-3 weeks.

However, if you are interested in reading the new 2010 edition, you can still get an eBook or paperback copy directly from this website by clicking here.

FYI… Amazon.com does not have the 2010 edition and does not offer a 100% money-back guarantee, so it’s probably better to order from this website anyways.

Keep on tickin!

Over the years, I have interacted with many patients that suffer from atrial fibrillation and heart valve diseases including aortic stenosis and mitral regurgitation. To learn more about atrial fibrillation and heart valve disease, I contacted Dr. Niv Ad, the Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Inova Health Systems in Falls Church, Virginia. Here are the highlights from our very interesting discussion:

Dr. Niv Ad- Chief of Cardiac Surgery
Inova Health Systems, Falls Church, Virginia

Adam: Thanks so much for taking time to speak with me today. I’d like to ask you a couple questions about atrial fibrillation and heart valve disorders.

Dr. Niv Ad: Thanks Adam for raising awareness to this very important topic.

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As many of you know, this is a very exciting time for the heart valve surgery community given the rapid advance of medical technologies used to treat diseases including aortic stenosis and mitral regurgitation.

Last week, St. Jude Medical, one of the leading heart valve manufacturers, cleared a significant hurdle for the commercial release of its new Trifecta heart valve replacement. In case you missed it, St. Jude announced that its Trifecta valve received CE mark approval for the device within the European Union. (The device is still in clinical trials here in the United States.)

Trifecta Heart Valve (Source: Medgadget)

As we have discussed before, the Trifecta heart valve is a pericardial, stented tissue valve used to replace a patient’s diseased, damaged or malfunctioning aortic heart valve. According to the St. Jude, this next-generation tissue valve has a tri-leaflet stented pericardial design which offers excellent hemodynamic performance, or nearly unobstructed blood flow, which closely mimics the blood flow of a natural, healthy heart. The valve also features the Linx AC Technology, an anti-calcification treatment designed to reduce tissue mineralization (hardening).

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