{"id":4778,"date":"2024-08-07T16:22:53","date_gmt":"2024-08-07T16:22:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=4778"},"modified":"2024-08-08T14:15:05","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T14:15:05","slug":"dr-mccarthy-mitral-annular-calcification","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/dr-mccarthy-mitral-annular-calcification\/","title":{"rendered":"Surgeon Q&#038;A: Mitral Annular Calcification, Preventing Stroke During Valve Surgery, and Calcium Supplements"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In recent years, the diagnosis of mitral annular calcification (\u201cMAC\u201d) has been more prevalent in our patient community.\u00a0 As a result, we are receiving many patient questions about the management and the treatment of MAC. For example, Bruce just asked us three questions specific to mitral annular calcification, mitral valve surgery, stroke risks, and the impact of calcium supplements on the mitral valve.<\/p>\n<p>To answer Bruce\u2019s questions, we were thrilled to meet with<a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Patrick-McCarthy-Chicago-Illinois.php\"> Dr. Patrick McCarthy<\/a>, Executive Director of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. As you may know, Dr. McCarthy is a mitral valve guru who just received his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2024\/05\/29\/dr-patrick-mccarthy-200-patient-reviews\/\">200th testimonial from patients in our community<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/z3uRRKfd8gM?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Key Learnings About Mitral Annular Calcification and Mitral Valve Surgery<\/h2>\n<p>Here are the important medical insights from Dr. McCarthy:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>First, Bruce asked, \u201cI am a 72-year-old retired primary care physician who was just diagnosed with severe mitral regurgitation and a flail leaflet. In addition, I have severe mitral annular calcification, or MAC. I recently went into heart failure necessitating a three-day hospitalization with a complete recovery. What is it about MAC that makes it difficult to operate on?\u201d <\/strong> Dr. McCarthy replied, \u201cIt\u2019s a great question, Bruce. Unfortunately, it\u2019s not that common because it\u2019s a real surgical challenge.\u201d Dr. McCarthy explained that two things happen with MAC. First, the mitral valve is pulled apart and broken and can\u2019t close properly, which causes the valve to leak. In addition, the broken piece of the valve creates tension at the base of the leaflet and starts to create fibrous tissue, which forms calcium. \u201cWhen we\u2019re doing an operation, we put sutures through that area of the annulus,\u201d said Dr. McCarthy. \u201cThat may be where we put a ring, or we put a replacement. We have to worry that the sutures go in deep enough that they hold and don\u2019t leak around there. Sometimes when it\u2019s truly severe MAC, we may have to remove it. That adds an extra step and it can be pretty tricky, so be careful about choosing your surgeon that they\u2019re pretty experienced in doing that.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4784 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/mac-body-image.jpg\" alt=\"Mitral Annular Calcification Example\" width=\"650\" height=\"363\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Next, Bruce asked, \u201cWhen doing open chest surgery on a patient with lots of calcification, is it recommended to put filters up the carotids to avoid embolic stroke from calcium chips?\u201d <\/strong> Dr. McCarthy answered, \u201cIt\u2019s not necessary that you do the filters at that time because what\u2019s happening is the heart is stopped. We have this cross clamp that stops it, and so we\u2019re working inside the heart.\u201d Dr. McCarthy explained that they are extremely careful about removing all of the calcium with high-power suction devices. \u201cWe irrigate with saline so that we remove all of that calcium before we start the heart again. The filter wouldn\u2019t really help too much with that,\u201d he said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Finally, Bruce asked, \u201cDid my 10-year history of taking calcium supplements contribute to severe MAC?\u201d <\/strong> Dr. McCarthy said, \u201cAnother great question. If I knew the answer, I would win the Nobel Prize. We think that number one, just the trauma of the valve leaflet and then the pressure it puts on the valve is the contributing factor. We are a little suspicious of people who take calcium supplements or Boniva, some of those things that have been out there before that may accelerate it. It\u2019s not as if we can say for certain that it\u2019s related, but it might be.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Thanks Dr. McCarthy and the Northwestern Medicine Team!<\/h2>\n<p>On behalf of Bruce and our entire patient community, thank you to Dr. Patrick McCarthy for his informative answers about mitral annular calcification, mitral valve surgery, and calcium supplements! We also want to thank Dr. McCarthy\u2019s team at Northwestern Medicine for taking great care of our heart valve patients!<\/p>\n<p>Related Links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2024\/05\/29\/dr-patrick-mccarthy-200-patient-reviews\/\">Surgeon Spotlight: Dr. McCarthy Gets His 200<sup>th<\/sup> Patient Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2020\/04\/28\/mitral-afib-surgery-mccarthy\/\">Dr. McCarthy\u2019s Mitral Valve Patient Success Story: Edward Clinton<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Keep on tickin!<br \/>\nAdam<\/p>\n<p>P.S. For the deaf and hard-of-hearing members of our patient community, I have provided a written transcript of the video interview with Dr. McCarthy below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"cms.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"class_list":["post-4778","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-mitral-valve-repair"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4778"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4798,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4778\/revisions\/4798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}