Ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm after resection of an infected cardiac myxoma.

A 12-year-old girl with a high fever underwent echocardiography and was found to have a myxoma that arose from the atrial side of the anterior mitral valve leaflet. The tumor was successfully excised. Histologic examination of the tumor showed myxoma cells and an organized thrombus with bacterial colonization.

Do cardiac neuropeptides play a role in the occurrence of atrial fibrillation after coronary bypass surgery?

Background: One of the potential mechanisms to explain the occurrence of postoperative atrial fibrillation (AF) is imbalance of autonomic nervous system tone. The myocardium is innervated not only by cholinergic and adrenergic nerves but also by peptidergic nerves that synthesize and secrete neuropeptides. To investigate the possible role of cardiac neuropeptides in the development of AF after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), we analyzed the plasma levels of substance P (SubP), neuropeptide Y (NPY), and angiotensin II (Ang II) in patients who underwent elective on-pump CABG.

A case report of coronary subclavian steal syndrome in a young woman.

A 41-year-old woman presented with complaints of increasing angina pectoris and coldness of her left arm for 1 month. Six months ago, she had undergone triple coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) including left internal mammary artery (LIMA) to left anterior descending artery (LAD) and two saphenous vein grafts to the diagonal branch of LAD and obtuse marginal branch of the circumflex artery. Coronary angiography revealed that contrast media injected into the saphenous vein graft coursing down the diagonal branch flowed up to LAD and drained into the LIMA opacifying the left subclavian artery.

A case report of surgical septal myectomy of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with concomitant left ventricular outflow tract and mid-ventricular obstructions.

A 27-year-old female presented with dyspnea, fatigue, and exertional angina is found to have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with marked hypertrophy of the papillary muscles, apex, septum, and lateral wall of the left ventricle. Also, small left ventricular cavity and systolic anterior movement of anterior mitral leaflet were observed at the echocardiography. The Doppler echocardiography revealed severe peak gradients at the left ventricle outflow tract (105 mmHg) and mid-ventricle (80 mmHg).

Left ventricular outflow tract obstruction after bioprosthetic mitral valve replacement with posterior mitral leaflet preservation.

We present a case of transient left ventricular outflow tract obstruction after mitral valve replacement with a high-profile bioprosthesis; only the posterior native mitral valve leaflet was preserved. A 76-year-old woman was admitted to our institution with pulmonary edema. Two weeks earlier, she had undergone mitral valve replacement at our hospital due to severe mitral stenosis and 2+ mitral regurgitation complicated by cardiac failure and atrial fibrillation.

The effects of short term (3 weeks) testosterone treatment on serum inflammatory markers in men undergoing coronary artery stenting.

Objective: Inflammation markers can predict restenosis after successful intracoronary stenting. There is evidence that testosterone suppresses the expression of the inflammatory cytokines. We hypothesized that testosterone therapy after coronary stenting can reduce the inflammation markers.

Aortic valve rupture due to high-voltage electrical injury: case report.

In the heart, the most common sequelae after electrical injury are myocardial contusion and arrhythmias. A case is presented of segmental ventricular dysfunction and severe aortic regurgitation due to laceration of the right coronary cusp of the aortic valve caused by electrical injury. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first reported case of valvular rupture due to electrical injury.

Clinical and echocardiographic predictors of left atrial appendage dysfunction in patients with mitral stenosis in sinus rhythm.

Background: Mitral stenosis (MS) causes left atrial (LA) appendage (LAA) dysfunction resulting in reduced LAA flow velocities. Low LAA peak emptying velocity (PEV), determined by transesophageal echocardiography, is a risk for thrombus formation and systemic embolism.

Objective: We sought to investigate various clinical and echocardiographic predictors of low LAA blood flow velocities.