MEdical TReatment Optimization in cardiac rehabilitation (METRO study) : a French multicenter study.

Background: Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is the right place to optimize the medical treatment in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients.

Aims: To report the medical management in CAD patients during CR and evaluate the consequences.

Methods: CAD patients who attended a CR program within less than three months of an acute coronary syndrome (ACS), a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), or a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) were included in a prospective multicenter study.

Congenital pericardial defect: report of two cases and literature review.

The authors report two cases of congenital pericardial defect and emphasize the role of MRI as a diagnostic tool. A review of the development of the pericardium and of the various possible explanations dealing with these abnormalities is then presented. Finally, clinical data and diagnosis and therapeutic options are discussed.

[Transient left ventricular apical ballooning syndrome. Case report and review of the literature].

Subject: Transient left ventricular apical ballooning syndrome, known as the japanese name of tako-tsubo was recently described and is characterised at the acute period by a large apical dyskinesia of the left ventricule apex. This syndrome usually mimics an acute coronary syndrome, sometime a cardiac failure or arrhythmias. We report a typical case of a seventy-seven years old women struck by a tako-tsubo syndrome revealed by an acute chest pain after an emotional stress.

[Severity of aortic ring abscess complicated by cardiac conduction abnormalities].

Objective: To determine clinical features, management and prognosis of cardiac conduction abnormalities (CCA) complicating abscessed endocarditis.

Methods: We have analysed clinical, microbiologic and echocardiographic datas, therapies and outcome of cardiac abscesses complicated by CCA in patient hospitalized between 1995 and 2001 in our centre.

Results: Above 35 cardiac abscesses, six men (mean age 62 years) had CCA complicating six aortic ring abscesses (4 on native valve and 2 on prosthetic valve) with four cases of interventricular septal involvement and fistulization.

[Outcome of 30 congenital atrio-ventricular blocks].

Congenital isolated atrio-ventricular block (CAVB) is a rare pathology, and its management is still rather poorly described through international literature. Within the service of pediatric cardiology leaded by Pr Choussat and Dr Jimenez (Cardiologic Hospital Haut-Lévêque of Bordeaux), we collected from 1980 to 2003, 30 isolated congenital CAVB, constituting the purpose of this retrospective study. Average follow-up is 14 +/- 8.