Infective Endocarditis Presenting as Complete Heart Block With an Unexpected Finding of a Cardiac Abscess and Purulent Pericarditis.

Intracardiac abscess resulting in complete heart block is an infrequent complication of infective endocarditis. Most presentations of endocarditis are limited to valvular and perivalvular structures, with varying degrees of heart block occurring in the minority of cases. We report a case of endocarditis manifesting as chest pain associated with ST segment elevation and complete heart block.

Prevalence and risk factors of pulmonary hypertension in patients with elevated pulmonary venous pressure and preserved ejection fraction.

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a well-recognized complication of left-sided heart failure with preserved left ventricular systolic function that portends a worse prognosis. The identification of risk factors may provide insight into possible mechanisms for the development of PH in this population. Targeting these risk factors could possibly attenuate the development of PH.

Non-invasive detection of pulmonary hypertension prior to renal transplantation is a predictor of increased risk for early graft dysfunction.

Background: Early graft dysfunction is a significant complication after renal transplantation and is a marker of adverse outcomes. Although multiple predictors of graft dysfunction have been previously described, the reported prevalence of pulmonary hypertension (pulmonary HTN) in the dialysis population (40-50%), along with biologic and physiologic principles, led us to hypothesize that pulmonary HTN might be an additional risk factor for early graft dysfunction.

Methods: We performed a retrospective study that screened all adult renal transplants performed at our institution over a 3-year period and limited the evaluation to those subjects who had an estimated pulmonary artery systolic pressure on a preoperative echocardiogram report (n = 55).