Use of an active-fixation coronary sinus lead to implant a biventricular pacemaker via the femoral vein.

Cardiac resynchronization therapy, which involves the placement of a pacing lead in the right atrium and in each ventricle, is effective in treating heart failure that is caused by left bundle branch block and cardiomyopathy. The left ventricular lead is usually placed into a lateral branch of the coronary sinus via the subclavian route. When the subclavian route is unavailable, insertion of a standard, passive-fixation coronary sinus lead via the femoral approach is feasible; however, the likelihood of subsequent dislodgment is high.

The prevalence of Brugada ECG in adult patients in a large university hospital in the western United States.

The prevalence of Brugada ECG in the United States is controversial and has not been studied in the western United States. The goal of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of Brugada syndrome appearing on ECGs in a large university hospital located in California. A total of 1348 ECGs performed at a university hospital in southern California in 1995 were randomly selected and reviewed for fulfilling 1 of the 3 types of Brugada criteria.

Review: transient left ventricular apical ballooning, broken heart syndrome, ampulla cardiomyopathy, atypical apical ballooning, or Tako-Tsubo cardiomyopathy.

Transient left ventricular apical ballooning syndrome, also called "Tako-Tsubo cardiomyopathy," is increasingly being recognized as a cause of cardiomyopathy occurring during stress, with characteristic apical ballooning appearance of the left ventricle and the finding of normal coronary arteries on angiogram. In this manuscript, we review the available literature about the pathogenesis and characteristics of this syndrome.

Clinical characteristics, demographics and prognosis of transient left ventricular apical ballooning syndrome.

Background: Transient left ventricular apical ballooning syndrome also called Tako-Tsubo cardiomyopathy is defined as a syndrome consisting of stress induced apical ballooning of the left ventricle and normal coronary arteries. The majority of the published reports are case reports or case series with a small number of patients. The goal of this study was to perform statistical analysis of reported cases and case series in the literature in order to study demographic, clinical characteristics and prognosis of this syndrome.

Early diagnosis of stress-induced apical ballooning syndrome based on classic echocardiographic findings and correlation with cardiac catheterization.

Stress-induced apical ballooning has been described as a reversible condition involving the apical left ventricular wall, sparing the base, and causing a ballooning appearance of the left ventricle during systole despite normal coronaries. We are presenting 4 cases of apical ballooning seen at our institution with echocardiographic correlation. Echocardiography showed similar anatomical apical ballooning of the left ventricular apex.