aortic valve stenosis

[Philip1815]

My son Andrew had aortic valve stenosis and about three years ago he went through a Ross procedure.  Now he has had a problem with the way in which his heart beats.  During his first seven years of life he lived with the bad valve his heart was compensating for his bad valve and now that the valve is
fixed.  Now that the valve is fixed his heart is not relaxing enough to allow more blood flow into the chamber to be oxygenated.  I would very much like to find out if there is a solution to this complication of the Ross procedure.  
The heart which is a muscle is not getting the correct signals to relax and not compensate for a bad valve.  

Is there anything to your knowledge that can help or can you put me in contact with anyone that might have an idea on what
to do.

I live in the Phoenix and Andrew's doctor is Dr. Robert Williams a pediatric cardiologist.  DR Teadorie (sp) is the person in the area who did the Ross procedure.  If you can direct me in any way I would appreciate it.  

Thanks again for your time and consideration.

[Cleveland Clinic, MD]

Dear Craig,
It sounds like what you are describing is what is called "diastolic dysfunction".  This is an abnormality in the relaxation of the heart.  It is diagnosed using an echocardiogram.  I am more familiar with adult cardiology and we see this commonly in individuals with a history of high blood pressure.  The treatment in adults is medical therapy such as beta-blockers or calcium channel blockers.  Treatment in children may vary somewhat.  The pediatric cardiologist here who would treat this sort of condition is Dr. Murphy.

[chrisr]

I have also had aortic valve stenosis but had it replaced with a St.Jude mechanical valve 6 months ago. Since then I have had some irregular heart beat when placed on 25mg Atenolol which was stopped. A bigger problem however has been pulse of 90-100 and a very heavy heart beat which would not go away. This is so annoying that I can only sleep with sedative (Transxene) and hearing aids with relaxing music. A MRI and echocardiogram showed everything OK so far but the beating goes on.

[Ben Smith]

I too, had Aortic Stenosis as a youngster. Mine at some point became Aortic Insufficiency.
I also went under the knife for repair, 8-8-00. Not only did I have the Aortic Regurgitation at 4+ I had an ascending aortic aneurysm.
I had the Ross Procedure performed by Dr. Gustov Pettersen at CCF and he was fantastic. (At 27 years old)
I did however have some faster heart beats than normal following the procedure, but that is normal. Your heart tends to get "annoyed" when some one works on it. As far as the diastolic dysfunction, I am not really familiar with it. But, if you are looking for some good information you can go to:
www.valvereplacement.com
they are a group that has been through many types of surgery and are willing to share experiences.

God Bless

Ben