Pathology of infectious and inflammatory diseases in prosthetic heart valves

Prosthetic heart valves, both mechanical and biological (xenograft valves, stented or unstented), show an inflammatory reaction (infective endocarditis), associated predominantly with bacterial/fungal infection. Somewhat surprisingly, no immune-mediated reaction has been reported thus far. This may, among other reasons, be related to the fact that the tissues are “fixed” with aldehydes and are virtually isolated from host circulation, separated by synthetic material (the valve stent and the fabric covering it). Stentless valves (especially these without fabric covering them), however, have no such “isolation” from the host circulation. While the Toronto-Stentless Porcine Valve has a covering of fabric, the Medtronic Freestyle valve has no such covering. It is perhaps not so surprising therefore that at the intermediate time point of 5 to 6 years, some valves are beginning to show such an immune reaction.