Can chronic anti-tumour necrosing factor therapy and colic polyps overwhelm a normal functioning mitral valve? A case report of an endocarditis complicated by a ruptured intracranial mycotic aneurysm.

Background: Rapid identification of endocarditis is challenging but also an important opportunity to change disease course. This is especially true when immunosuppression undermines diagnosis by mitigating symptoms that commonly accompany infectious disease, sometimes in the absence of predisposing heart valve disease as in this case presented here.

Case Summary: A middle-aged man with chronic etanercept treatment for ankylosing spondylitis, with previously well-documented normal cardiac valves, presented with afebrile chills, night sweating, weight loss, and a new mitral regurgitation at auscultation.

Dobutamine stress echocardiography in patients with moderate coronary artery disease detected by coronary computed tomography angiography could reduce the rate of unnecessary coronary angiography.

Aims: To test the hypothesis that dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) reduces the rate of unnecessary invasive coronary angiography (CA) in patients with chronic stable coronary artery disease (CAD) and moderate to severe stenosis detected by coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA).

Methods: This study included 49 consecutive, symptomatic CAD patients with coronary lesions greater than 50% detected by CCTA who underwent all DSE and a CA with pressure wire evaluation and FFR measurement. The DSE operators was aware of the CCTA results, but invasive physicians were blinded to DSE results.

Publisher Correction: Accurate Detection of Dobutamine-induced Haemodynamic Changes by Kino-Cardiography: A Randomised Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Validation Study.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Accurate Detection of Dobutamine-induced Haemodynamic Changes by Kino-Cardiography: A Randomised Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Validation Study.

Non-invasive remote detection of cardiac and blood displacements is an important topic in cardiac telemedicine. Here we propose kino-cardiography (KCG), a non-invasive technique based on measurement of body vibrations produced by myocardial contraction and blood flow through the cardiac chambers and major vessels. KCG is based on ballistocardiography and measures 12 degrees-of-freedom (DOF) of body motion.

Prognostic Implications of Magnetic Resonance-Derived Quantification in Asymptomatic Patients With Organic Mitral Regurgitation: Comparison With Doppler Echocardiography-Derived Integrative Approach.

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an accurate method for the quantitative assessment of organic mitral regurgitation (OMR). The aim of the present study was to compare the discriminative power of MRI quantification and the recommended Doppler echocardiography (ECHO)-derived integrative approach to identify asymptomatic patients with OMR and adverse outcome.

Methods: The study population consisted of 258 asymptomatic patients (63±14 years, 60% men) with preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (>60%) and chronic moderate and severe OMR (flail 25%, prolapse 75%) defined by using the ECHO-derived integrative approach.