Worldwide perspective of valve disease

[...]valve replacement accounts for the majority of cardiac surgery in these countries. [...]systemic lupus is a complex disease in which multiple inflammatory, thrombotic, and degenerative phenomena are involved. [...]the best model to determine whether aPL antibodies and valve lesions are related is the primary antiphospholipid syndrome, namely, those patients with antibodies to phospholipids, thrombotic manifestations, but no other disease that may account for the antibodies.