Congenital absence of the pericardium: A rare and challenging diagnosis.

This article describes a patient who presented to the ED after multiple episodes of syncope. His physical examination was unremarkable and an initial workup was negative. Transthoracic echocardiography and chest CT confirmed the diagnosis of congenital complete absence of the pericardium, a rare developmental abnormality most common in men.

Cardiogenic shock following electro-cardioversion of new onset atrial flutter.

Transient hypotension and atrial stunning are known complications of electro-cardioversion for supra-ventricular tachyarrhythmias, however, a clinically significant cardiac failure is extremely rare in this setting. We, herein, present a 77-year-old African American male who underwent electro-cardioversion following an unremarkable transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) for a symptomatic atrial flutter of a new onset. Immediately post-cardioversion, he suffered severe hypotension with a depressed LV systolic function.

Nonsustained ventricular tachycardia induced by valsalva manoeuvre in a patient with nonobstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Cardiac arrhythmias are rarely inducible in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy on provocative manoeuvres to identify latent obstruction. We present a 40-year-old male with history of nonobstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy who presented with lightheadedness. Echocardiogram showed severe asymmetric hypertrophy of the left ventricle without left ventricular outflow tract gradient at rest.

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension associated with either primary or secondary aldosteronism.

Background: Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) is a syndrome consisting of headache, visual field defects and papilledema of uncertain etiology. The prospect was raised previously as to an association between aldosteronism and increased intracranial pressure in 2 middle-aged women with IIH and primary aldosteronism (PAL). Since then, 2 additional adults were identified and 2 other cases were reported from the United Kingdom, whereas 6 cases of IIH and secondary aldosteronism (SAL) in children have been reported in the English literature worldwide.