Design and Rationale of the National Tunisian Registry of Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: Protocol for a Prospective Multicenter Observational Study.

Background: Coronary artery diseases remain the leading cause of death in the world. The management of this condition has improved remarkably in the recent years owing to the development of new technical tools and multicentric registries.

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the in-hospital and 1-year clinical outcomes of patients treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in Tunisia.

Rapid occurrence of giant left ventricular pseudoaneurysm after mitral valve replacement.

Left ventricular pseudoaneurysms are an uncommon and frightening complication after mitral valve replacement. We report the case of a 54-year old woman, having undergone a mitral valve replacement with uneventful postoperative course and normal echocardiographic predischarge control, who was readmitted to hospital, only 16 days later, for rapidly progressing dyspnea, and finally echocardiographically diagnosed to have a massive 8-cm long pseudoaneurysm communicating with the left ventricle through a narrow communication. The patient was proposed for emergency surgery but unfortunately died preoperatively.

Unusual cause of syncope in a 17 year-old young woman: left ventricular hydatid cyst.

Cardiac involvement in echinococcosis remains a singular finding, possibly associated with confusing symptomatology. We report the original case of a 17 year-old young woman, referred to our cardiology department for repeated exertion syncopes, and ultimately, proven through echocardiography, serologies and magnetic resonance imaging to have a massive hydatid cyst developing inside the left ventricular cavity towards the outflow tract. The cyst has been surgically completely removed with excellent results.

Left main coronary thrombosis: unusual complication after radiofrequency ablation of left accessory atrioventricular pathway.

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) has established itself as a first-line therapy for the curative treatment of many patients with supraventricular or atrioventricular tachycardias and has exhibited a generally low incidence of serious sequelae (N Engl J Med. 1991;324:1612; Lancet. 1991;337:1557).

Total absence of ST-segment resolution after failed thrombolysis is correlated with unfavorable short- and long-term outcomes despite successful rescue angioplasty.

Introduction: ST-segment resolution (STR) is a well-established and simple tool for assessing the efficacy of reperfusion therapy in myocardial infarction. An incomplete (<50%) STR is a recognized marker of failed thrombolysis and a suitable recruitment criterion for rescue angioplasty.

Objective: We sought to determine the predictive value of the total absence of STR after thrombolysis in rescue angioplasty (percutaneous coronary intervention [PCI]).

Neurogenic pulmonary edema due to traumatic brain injury: evidence of cardiac dysfunction.

Background: Acute neurogenic pulmonary edema, a common and underdiagnosed clinical entity, can occur after virtually any form of injury of the central nervous system and is a potential early contributor to pulmonary dysfunction in patients with head injuries.

Objective: To explore myocardial function in patients with evident neurogenic pulmonary edema after traumatic head injury.

Methods: During a 1-year period in a university hospital in Sfax, Tunisia, information was collected prospectively on patients admitted to the 22-bed intensive care unit because of isolated traumatic head injury who had neurogenic pulmonary edema.

[Short coupled variant of "torsades de pointes" and sudden death].

A case report of 38 year old man who experienced syncope and torsade de pointes is presented with the short coupled variant. The patient had a normal QT interval (QTC: 0.37 seconds) and multiform ventricular premature beats on the resting electrocardiogram.

[Use of an implantable defibrillator for the prevention of sudden death in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy].

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is an inherited muscle disorder disease. Sudden death is the most dreaded complication, risk stratification is of critical importance and patients with high risk should receive an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). We report the case of 26 years old man affected by a severe form of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

[Radiofrequency ablation of periatriotomy atrial flutter after interatrial defect surgical repair].

We report a successful ablation of reentrant atrial tachycardia complicating atrial septal defect repair. This tachyarrhythmia was poorly tolerated hemodynamically and difficult to control with antiarrhythmic drug therapy and atrial pacing. Ablation therapy has focused on extending a line of block from the surgical incision to the inferior veno cava.