Clinically silent microemboli in patients with artificial prosthetic aortic valves are predominantly gaseous and not solid.

What Researchers Did

Researchers monitored microembolic signals (MES) in five patients with prosthetic aortic valves while they inspired 100% oxygen, with one patient also receiving hyperbaric oxygen.

What They Found

Inspiration of 100% oxygen significantly reduced microembolic signals from 96 to 2 per 30 minutes. Conversely, increasing dissolved oxygen in a hyperbaric chamber increased MES from 0.3 to 0.9 per minute. These findings provide strong evidence that microemboli in these patients are gaseous.

Canadian Relevance

This study has no direct Canadian connection as it was not conducted in Canada nor involved Canadian researchers or patients.

Study Limitations

A significant limitation of this study is the very small sample size of only five patients.