Echocardiographic progression of a subepicardial aneurysm after inferior myocardial infarction.

A 62-year-old man presented to hospital with chest oppression. Coronary angiography revealed total occlusion of the right coronary artery and inferior myocardial infarction was diagnosed. He was treated by percutaneous coronary intervention with stenting for myocardial infarction.

Elevation of the ratio of transmitral E velocity to early diastolic mitral annular velocity continues even after recovery from acute stage in patients with diastolic heart failure.

Background: Clinical features of diastolic heart failure (DHF) have not been well characterized, leading to an inaccuracy in the diagnosis of DHF. Recently, the ratio of transmitral E velocity to early diastolic mitral annular velocity (E/E') has been shown to be useful to assess LV filling pressure.

Purpose: We tested the hypothesis that persistent elevation of E/E' ratio is one of the characteristics of patients with DHF.

Fourteen month follow-up angioscopic findings of a sirolimus-eluting stent implanted in a 15-year-old saphenous vein graft.

Saphenous vein grafts (SVGs) are common, as is their degeneration and early failure after coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). Percutaneous SVG intervention with drug-eluting stents (DES) was associated with superior short-term clinical outcomes. However, SVG intervention compared with coronary intervention often results in distal embolisation and periprocedural myocardial infarction.

Intracoronary nicorandil relieves multiple coronary vasospasm with hemodynamic collapse.

A 49-year-old woman was referred to hospital because of chest discomfort. Coronary angiography revealed subtotal occlusion of the left coronary artery and the right coronary artery, but subsequent hemodynamic collapse occurred. Based on the results of intravascular ultrasound the occlusion was suspected to be caused by coronary vasospasm, which was not relieved by intracoronary injection of isosorbide dinitrate (1 mg), but was alleviated by nicorandil (2 mg), a potassium-channel opener.

Angioscopic findings of delayed healing at sites of sirolimus-eluting stent overlap after 21-month implantation.

Treatment of de novo coronary stenosis with sirolimus-eluting stents is associated with very low rates of target lesion revascularization and other major adverse cardiac events in the short-term after implantation, but a definite frequency of late-stent thrombosis (LST) over a long-term follow-up has become evident. One of the predictors of LST is stent overlap. We reported the angioscopic findings of very delayed healing at sites of sirolimus-eluting stent overlap 21 months post-implantation.

Acute myocardial infarction caused by "malignant" anomalous right coronary artery detected by multidetector row computed tomography.

Anomalous coronary arteries are usually identified incidentally by angiography or autopsy, but some "malignant" coronary anomalies are associated with a high incidence of syncope, arrhythmia, myocardial infarction, and sudden death. So far, the pathogenesis of the coronary events in such cases has only been revealed by autopsy. In the present case report, a patient with anomalous origin of the right coronary artery from the left sinus of Valsalva developed acute myocardial infarction, and visualization of the anomaly and assessment of the culprit plaque in the artery were done by multidetector row computed tomography and intravascular ultrasound.