Congenital Absence of the Pericardium: A Systematic Approach to Diagnosis and Management.

Congenital absence of the pericardium (CAP) is a rare condition. Failure to recognize the clinical features of this condition can lead to incorrect and delayed diagnosis. Limited data are available regarding the optimal approach to diagnose and manage patients with suspected CAP.

Metabolic syndrome and its components are underdiagnosed in cardiology clinics.

Background: Although metabolic syndrome (MetS) is an important clinical condition, evidence is scarce on how often doctors successfully diagnose this syndrome.

Aims: To assess the extent of doctors' diagnosis of MetS and its components in cardiology outpatient setting and whether such diagnosis affects the way patients are counselled on lifestyle modification.

Methods: This is a multicentre cross-sectional study on randomly selected clinical notes at ambulatory cardiology clinics in three academic centres in the USA.

Reactive hemophagocytic syndrome associated with disseminated histoplasmosis in a heart transplant recipient.

We describe a patient who developed multi-organ failure with reactive hemophagocytic syndrome secondary to disseminated histoplasmosis 8 months after orthotopic heart transplantation. The patient responded fully to a prolonged course of therapy with amphotericin B and remains free of recurrence. Disseminated histoplasmosis and reactive hemophagocytic syndrome have rarely been described in the setting of cardiac transplantation and never before in combination.