Background: Post-mRNA vaccination-associated cardiac complication is a rare but life-threatening adverse event. Its risk has been well balanced by the benefit of vaccination-induced protection against severe COVID-19. As the rate of severe COVID-19 has consequently declined, future booster vaccination to sustain immunity, especially against infection with new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants, may encounter benefit-risk ratios that are less favorable than at the start of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Clinical guidelines recommend that the exercise protocol of a stress echocardiogram is selected to induce volitional exhaustion after a target duration of at least 8 minutes. While the Bruce protocol is very commonly used for clinical stress tests, it is known to be "steep", and many patients therefore fail to reach 8 minutes. We studied predictors of failure and developed a method for identifying patients not suitable for Bruce protocol which was accurate and yet simple enough to be used as a point-of-care decision support tool.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: We assessed the local prevalence, characteristics and 10-year outcomes in a heart failure (HF) cohort from the emergency room (ER).
Materials And Methods: Patients presenting with acute dyspnoea to ER were prospectively enrolled from December 2003 to December 2004. HF was diagnosed by physicians' adjudication based on clinical assessment and echocardiogram within 12 hours, blinded to N-terminal-pro brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) results.
We report the rare case of a patient with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) who initially presented to the hospital with symptoms of cardiac failure. Preoperative cardiac studies did not reveal any underlying ischemia. After resection of a large 14-cm left renal tumor, cardiac function was noted to improve dramatically.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: A 49-year-old female presented with worsening exertional dyspnea (NYHA class III) and orthopnea for several months. Previous medical history was significant for rheumatic mitral regurgitation and three previous mitral valve replacements (MVRs).
Investigation: Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) revealed severe mitral paravalvular leak (PVL with two jets visualised.