Percutaneous mitral balloon commissurotomy: a useful and necessary treatment for the western population

[1] Burton PBJ, Owen VJ, Hafizi S et al. Vascular endothelial growth factor release following coronary artery bypass surgery: extracorporeal circulation versus ‘beating heart’ surgery. Eur Heart J 2000; 21: 1709–14. [2] Henry TD. Can we really grow new blood vessels? Lancet 1998; 351: 1826–7. [3] Neufeld G, Cohen T, Gengrinovitch S, Poltorak Z. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptors. FASEB J 1999; 13: 9–22. [4] Tofukuji M, Metais C, Li J, Franklin A, Simons M, Sellke FW. Myocardial VEGF expression after cardiopulmonary bypass and cardioplegia. Circulation 1998; 98: II-242–II-248. [5] Luo Z, Asahara T, Tsurumi Y, Isner JM, Symes JF. Reduction of vein graft intimal hyperplasia and preservation of endothelium-dependent relaxation by topical vascular endothelial growth factor. J Vasc Surg 1998; 27: 167–73. [6] Lewis BS, Flugelman MY, Weisz A, Keren-Tal I, Schaper W. Angiogenesis by gene therapy: a new horizon for myocardial revascularization? Cardiovasc Res 1997; 35: 490–7. [7] Banai S, Shweiki D, Pinson A, Chandra M, Lazarovici G, Keshet E. Upregulation of vascular endothelial growth factor expression induced by myocardial ischaemia: implications for coronary angiogenesis. Cardiovasc Res 1994; 28: 1176–9. [8] Hashimoto E, Ogita T, Nakaoka T, Matsuoka R, Takao A, Kira Y. Rapid induction of vascular endothelial growth factor expression by transient ischemia in rat heart. Am J Physiol 1994; 267: H1948–54. [9] Luo Z, Diaco M, Murohara T, Ferrara N, Isner JM, Symes JF. Vascular endothelial growth factor attenuates myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury. Ann Thorac Surg 1997; 64: 993–8. [10] Gu YJ, Mariani MA, van Oeveren W, Grandjean JG, Boonstra PW. Reduction of the inflammatory response in patients undergoing minimally invasive coronary artery bypass grafting. Ann Thorac Surg 1998; 65: 420–4.