An incidental finding of mitral valve network.

A 63-year-old male presented with a 6-month history of worsening exertional dyspnea and was found to have three-vessel coronary artery disease. Transesophageal echocardiography revealed a filamentous structure attached to the anterior mitral valve leaflet, which was confirmed during surgery as filamentous network. To our knowledge, this is the first report to describe such a network attached to the mitral valve.

Treating heparin-induced thrombocytopenia. The unconventional way!

Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia HIT is a potentially devastating complication of heparin therapy. The severe form of HIT has been associated with both venous and arterial thrombosis manifested by myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular occlusion, skin necrosis or limb ischemia. Several agents are now available as alternatives to heparin in patients with suspected HIT, including the thrombin specific inhibitors lepirudin and argatroban as well as the low molecular weight heparinoid known as danaparoid.

Biatrial aspergillosis in a patient with immunocompetency.

A 24-year-old man presented with a 24-hour history of pain and numbness in his left arm. The patient's clinical presentation of peripheral embolism was corroborated by angiography. Echocardiographic study showed masses in both right and left atria.

Aorto-right atrial fistula.

We report a child in whom a fistula connected the descending thoracic aorta to the right atrium. This is a previously unreported cardiac malformation. The patient was initially misdiagnosed as having a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA).