A rare cause of heart failure treated by heart transplantation: noncompaction of the ventricular myocardium.

Noncompaction of the ventricular myocardium is a rare cardiomyopathy due to an arrest of myocardial morphogenesis. The characteristic echocardiographic findings are prominent myocardial trabeculations and deep intertrabecular spaces communicating with the left ventricular cavity. The clinical manifestations include heart failure (HF) signs, ventricular arrhythmias, and cardioembolic events.

Release of markers of myocardial damage evaluated in the coronary sinus during cardiac surgery.

Myocardial damage is a frequent complication of cardiac surgery by direct mechanical trauma during the surgical procedure and by myocardial ischemia, which occurs during the cardiopulmonary bypass (CBP). Because the concentrations of biomarkers in the blood collected from the coronary sinus are the best witness of the myocardial damages, we measured the levels of specific cardiac troponin I (c-TnI) and nonspecific (adenosine, myoglobin) markers of left ventricular damages in the coronary sinus of patients during cardiac surgery. Thirty patients who underwent aortic valve replacement for aortic stenosis were included.

Diagnosis of infectious endocarditis in patients undergoing valve surgery.

Purpose: Histologic examination of valve samples is considered as the gold standard for the diagnosis of infectious endocarditis. Molecular tools are also very promising for patients with negative-culture endocarditis. Thus, we studied the contribution of valvular histology, culture, and 16S rRNA PCR amplification plus sequencing to the diagnosis of infectious endocarditis in patients undergoing valve surgery.