Long term evaluation of electromechanical delay in patients with atrial septal defect after transcatheter closure.

Some studies have been showed that electromechanical delay, which may pose an increased tendency to atrial fibrillation, may prolong in patients with various clinical conditions. In addition, the electromechanical delay in patients with secundum type atrial septal defect (ASD) compared to healthy people have been reported previously. Therefore, in the present study, we prospectively evaluated the mid-term and long-term effects of the transcatheter closure of secundum type ASD on the lateral atrial conduction time (PA), septal PA, tricuspid PA, left and right intra-atrial electromechanical delay (ILeft-EMD and IRight-EMD, respectively) and inter-atrial electromechanical delay (IA-EMD) measured by means of Doppler echocardiography.

A patient presenting with acute heart failure: A dilemma of diagnosis.

Acute dyspnea is a major complaint of patients admitted to cardiology and emergency departments (ED). Acute dyspnea can be life-threatening, and is seen in cases of asthma, pulmonary embolism, acute heart failure and myocardial infarction. The present case is that of a 32-year-old man admitted to the ED with orthopnea position and agitation.

Giant biventricular thrombi presenting with acute myocardial infarction.

Biventricular thrombi secondary to anterior myocardial infarction is very rare. We present a patient with giant biventricular thrombi subsequent to an old anterior wall myocardial infarction, and devastating consequences, including acute pulmonary artery and femoral artery embolism. We introduce a unique case report with demonstrative and illustrative images.