[Mobile and obstructive thrombus of the left atrium. Value and risks of transesophageal echocardiography. Report of a case and review of the literature].

Authors report the observation of a young woman of 30 years hospitalised for degeneration of a mitral biologic prosthesis. Transthoracic echocardiography visualizes a voluminous mass of the left auricle of which the character free and destitute of all parietal attachment, doesn't have can be established that by transoesophageal echocardiography that detects another thrombus also free and mobile of the left auricule, unrecognised by transthoracic way. The operative indication is carried in emergency but the patient dies suddenly some hours after this exam.

[Predictive factors of atrial fibrillation in mitral stenosis. Clinical and echocardiographic study].

The objective of this study was to define the predictive factors of atrial fibrillation in pure or very predominant mitral stenosis in a series of 472 consecutive patients divided into 2 groups according to the presence (group I: n = 113) or absence (group II: n = 359) of permanent atrial fibrillation. Univariate analysis showed that predictive factors for atrial fibrillation in mitral stenosis are age (40.3 +/- 9 years vs 31.

[Predictive indices of the persistence of left ventricular dilatation after valve replacement for chronic aortic insufficiency. Echocardiographic study].

The objective of this study was to define the echocardiographic indices predictive of persistence of left ventricular dilatation one year after valve replacement for chronic aortic incompetence. Thirty four consecutive patients (32 men and 2 women, age: 35.6 +/- 10 years) operated for post-rheumatic chronic aortic incompetence, were included in this series.

[Muscle bridge and myocardial ischemia. Study of 6 cases].

The authors analyse the clinical and therapeutic aspects of myocardial bridges in a series of 6 male patients between the ages of 41 and 61 years. In every cases, the presenting signs were ischaemic order: one myocardial infarction, three cases of unstable angina and two case of stable angina. On coronary angiography, these muscle bridges involved the left anterior descending artery in all cases.