Tag Archives: PCR

A pathologist’s eye view of valve disease started the day with a presentation from Professor Kim Survana (Consultant Pathologist, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust). Covering the range from normality, to degenerative, calcific, rheumatic, congenital and infective pathology, slides of macroscopic and microscopic specimens brought to life what cardiologists see and hear in their daily practice, or as Professor John Chambers (Consultant Cardiologist, St Thomas’s Hospital, London) coined: “the reality of shadows”. Reviewing culture negative endocarditis, Dr John Klein (Consultant Microbiologist, Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Foundati

TAVI for asymptomatic and intermediate risk patients Indications for transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) are a critical aspect of determining the future of the therapy and this became a recurrent theme of the meeting. Current guidelines do not support the use of TAVI for those with asymptomatic aortic stenosis, as argued by Dr Bernard Prendergast (John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford). There are some scenarios, however, where TAVI for asymptomatic aortic stenosis is appropriate, such as an immobile patient in whom symptoms have not appeared, or a frail patient with rapid progression of the condition. To date, there have been three prope