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J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2009;138:1099
© 2009 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery

Invited Commentary

Discussion

Dr R. W. M. Frater (Bronx, NY). With respect to what I understand to be your diagram of a full rigid ring, in fact there aren't any full rigid rings that have a curved portion at the base of the anterior leaflet. So this is basically a false concept. There is not a rigid ring that has that kind of shape. Rigid rings have a straight line there. In fact, it is a straight line in rigid rings from one trigone to the next. So I grant you that a rigid ring does significantly affect the outflow tract, it stops the normal motion of the subaortic curtain toward the mitral muscular annulus, but it isn't shaped like that. So I think, you know, you need to be accurate if you want to compare rigid rings with partially rigid rings.

I gather that you are saying, and I agree with you completely here, that there is a . . . [Full Text of this Article]