UHealth Cardiovascular Experts Help Bring New Techniques to the International Medical Community

6/10/2008

As part of its growing partnerships with international medical institutions to help bring the most innovative health care to Latin America, the University of Miami International Medicine Institute has been making major strides with heart health technology in Colombia. Miller School cardiovascular experts recently assisted and consulted in a new percutaneous aortic valve program at Angiografía de Occidente in Cali, in which eight patients were successfully treated for severe non-surgical aortic stenosis.

Aortic stenosis is a thickening and blockage of the main valve of the heart that leads to shortness of breath, chest pain, heart failure and death, if left untreated, and is usually remedied through open-heart surgery. The Cali patients were given the percutaneous valve replacement – a new alternative to open-heart surgery – in which the stenotic aortic valve is replaced using catheters. During the minimally invasive procedure the patients are sedated but remain conscious.

Previous to these cases, only two procedures had been performed in South America with the new aortic valve, known as the CoreValve® (these two cases were done in Sao Paolo, Brazil.) The CoreValve recently received a CE, which is the mark of approval from the European Union, but is yet to be approved for use in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration.

University of Miami Cardiovascular Center director and associate dean for international medicine, Eduardo de Marchena, M.D., and Jackson Memorial Hospital Cardiovascular Laboratory director Alex Ferreira, M.D., worked with colleagues Antonio Jose Dager, M.D., University of Miami alumnus and director of Angiografía de Occidente, and Peter de Jaegere, M.D., of the Thorax Center in the Netherlands, to perform the aortic valve replacement procedures. Colleagues from the United States, Brazil, Colombia, and Uruguay also observed the procedures. Three procedures were done in March and five more in May.

The results of these groundbreaking techniques were reviewed at the sixth annual Miami International Revascularization Summit (MIRS), April 10-12, at the Alexander Oceanfront Resort in Miami Beach. The MIRS conference was presented via live Webcast to schools, hospitals and clinics worldwide.

William O’Neill, M.D., executive dean for clinical affairs for the Miller School and chief medical officer of UHealth, is one of the pioneers of percutaneous aortic valve surgery. In April, Dr. O’Neill, along with Alan W. Heldman, M.D., clinical chief of the Miller School’s Cardiovascular Division, conducted separate percutaneous valve trials at UM Hospital where the Edwards SAPIEN® aortic valve was used to treat two patients.

The Edwards SAPIEN valve replacement is also an alternative to open-heart surgery for some patients. This valve replacement is also a minimally invasive procedure that involves crimping the transcatheter heart valve onto a balloon delivery catheter and then threading it through the patient’s circulatory system from the leg.