Doctors discuss mitral valve care

SPEAKERS: Judy Hung, MD; MGH, HMS
and Michael Davidson, MD; BWH

(No Video Available)

6.05.2007 FORUM REPORT:

Chances are improving for achieving better outcomes in treating mitral regurgitation, two cardiac specials said at the CIMIT Forum Tuesday, June 5, at Simches Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Judy Hung, MD, assistant physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, spoke about potential improvements in care as a result of three-dimensional echocardiography.

The topic of her address was "Mechanism of Mitral Regurgitation: Insights from 3D Echo Toward Improving Repair."

She discussed current surgical repair and percutaneous approaches, and how therapy might be improved based on these mechanistic insights.

About 500,000 patients suffer from mitral regurgitation, a common valve disorder. Though progress has been made in recent years, some patients are underserved, experts say.

Michael Davidson, MD, associate surgeon in the Division of Cardiac Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, spoke on the topic, "From the Scalpel to the Catheter: Percutaneous Approaches to Mitral Valve Repair."

He said the advent of newer imaging and device technologies have enabled the development of catheter-based mitral valve repair, which might benefit these populations.

Dr. Davidson reviewed the state-of-the-art approaches to fixing mitral regurgitation, including the lessons surgery can offer to disruptive technologies. He also discussed the CIMIT-sponsored research using transcatheter methods to enable chordal replacement.

Dr. Davidson utilized a CIMIT study grant to learn more about cardiology, and the most effective methods in dealing with heart problems.