[Retrospective analysis of a large number of patients over 70 years old, subject to percutaneous coronary angioplasty or to surgery].

Introduction: The number of patients of advanced age with symptomatic coronary illness that need surgical or percutaneous revascularisation is increasing. The aim of the present paper is to gain knowledge of the evolution of patients over 70 years of age subjected to myocardial revascularisation.

Material And Methods: We compare two groups of patients, in a non-aleatory manner, subjected to angioplasty (N=65) and to surgery (N=75).

Long-term follow-up of aortic intramural hematoma: predictors of outcome.

Background: Aortic intramural hematoma (IMH) evolves very dynamically in the short-term to regression, dissection, or aortic rupture. The aim of the present study was to assess the long-term clinical and morphological evolution of medically treated IMH.

Methods And Results: Fifty of 68 consecutive patients with aortic IMH monitored clinically and by imaging techniques at 3, 6, and 12 months and annually thereafter were prospectively studied.

[Non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis of the aortic valve in a young woman].

A 40-year-old woman without heart disease suffered two embolic episodes in both legs due to a thrombus of the aortic valve. Transesophageal echocardiography performed after the first episode was considered normal, but a second study performed after the second embolism demonstrated a thrombus in the non-coronary leaflet that failed to resolve with the intravenous administration of heparin for two weeks. Surgical excision of the mass revealed a thrombus on an otherwise healthy aortic valve.

Transesophageal echocardiography in the diagnosis of acute aortic syndrome.

In recent years, technological advances in echocardiography have led to improvements in the diagnosis of acute aortic disease. With transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) and, particularly, bi- and multiplane probes, the physiopathologic understanding of these diseases has widened. Thus, new entities such as penetrating ulcer and intramural hematoma have been described and differentiated from classical aortic dissection.