[Transient left ventricular apical ballooning syndrome. Case report and review of the literature].

Subject: Transient left ventricular apical ballooning syndrome, known as the japanese name of tako-tsubo was recently described and is characterised at the acute period by a large apical dyskinesia of the left ventricule apex. This syndrome usually mimics an acute coronary syndrome, sometime a cardiac failure or arrhythmias. We report a typical case of a seventy-seven years old women struck by a tako-tsubo syndrome revealed by an acute chest pain after an emotional stress.

[Effort-induced macroscopic hematuria revealing segmental and congenital absence of inferior vena cava].

Absence of inferior vena cava (IVC) is an uncommon congenital abnormality with few clinical repercussions. We report the case of a 39 year old man with chronic pelvic pain, in whom a macroscopic hematuria episode occurring during exercise led to the discovery of an echographic pelvic venous stasis syndrome. Abdominal and pelvic computed tomography scanning then magnetic resonance imaging of inferior vena cava revealed absence of the postrenal segment of IVC with azygos continuation and considerable collateral venous derivations, leading to pelvic cavernoma.

[Acute post-traumatic aortic insufficiency: transesophageal echocardiography in the diagnosis and therapy of the lesions].

A 58-year-old car driver suffered a road accident responsible for severe blunt thoraco-abdominal trauma. Transoephageal echocardiography, performed following the secondary development of a diastolic murmur, confirmed the presence of aortic incompetence due to commissural avulsion and guided the surgical treatment, which consisted of commissural suspension under cardiopulmonary bypass via a mini transverse trans-sternal incision. The rarity of acute aortic valve incompetence following non-penetrating thoracic trauma is illustrated by the data of the literature.

[Incidental CT discovery of an isolated thrombus in the aortic arch].

The authors report a case of isolated thrombus of the aortic arch discovered incidentally during thoracic CT angiography, complicated by clinical features of embolic renal infarction despite introduction of anticoagulant treatment. This case confirms the value of transoesophageal echocardiography to diagnose and follow these lesions and illustrates the therapeutic approach following discovery of aortic thrombi.

[Unusual complication of venous thrombosis of the upper limb: pulmonary hypertension].

Although less frequent than that of the lower limbs, venous thrombosis of the upper limbs may cause pulmonary embolism. This embolism is usually moderate and facilitated by the delay or absence of anticoagulant treatment. We report the case of a young man who had multiple and recurrent embolism consecutive to thrombosis of the axillary and subclavian veins and who rapidly developed pulmonary arterial hypertension on previously healthy lungs.