Pregnancy and subsequent pregnancy outcomes in peripartum cardiomyopathy.

Aim: To study the clinical profile and management of peripartum cardiomyopathy, and to analyze the pregnancy outcomes of pregnant women with this disorder as well as its effect on subsequent pregnancies.

Methods: All patients admitted with peripartum cardiomyopathy from July 2006 to June 2009 by the Departments of Cardiology and Obstetrics and Gynecology from the Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research, Kolkata, India, were considered for this observational study. Thirty-six women with 42 pregnancies (36 first pregnancies and six second pregnancies in the same patients) were evaluated.

A case of complete heart block in a patient with HIV and leptospirosis.

A 32 year-old patient presented with a two-week duration of fever with hepato-splenomegaly with dizziness spells for two days. The patient was found to have HIV and to be leptospira positive. Electrocardiogram showed complete heart block which disappeared after antibiotic treatment.

A case of mitral stenosis with achalasia.

A 65-year-old woman with rheumatic heart disease and severe mitral stenosis developed dysphagia. As her dysphagia could not be directly attributed to an enlarged left atrium, she underwent barium swallow, which established the diagnosis of achalasia. This case report shows two unrelated diseases present in the same patient which individually can cause dysphagia.

The twiddler's plus syndrome--a case report.

We present a case of a 43-year-old male with an extreme form of the twiddler's syndrome - almost complete lead dislodgement associated with their fracture.