Transesophageal echocardiography: a screening method for pulmonary vein stenosis after catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation.

Aims: Pulmonary vein (PV) stenosis has been described as a complication after catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation. The aim of the study was to investigate the diagnostic role of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in the assessment of PV stenosis.

Methods: Ninety-one patients (71 men, mean age 57+/-16years), initially treated by catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation, underwent re-ablation because of arrhythmia recurrences.

Spontaneous retraction of an intramyocardial dissecting hemorrhage and multiple left ventricular thrombus formations in subacute myocardial infarction and antiphospholipid syndrome: a case report with long-term follow-up.

This report describes a 68-year-old patient with a subacute myocardial infarction and antiphosholipid syndrome. He developed an intramyocardial dissecting hemorrhage involving the left ventricular apex and multiple left ventricular thrombus formations, documented by contrast echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging. By use of transthoracic echocardiography, spontaneous retraction of the dissecting hemorrhage could be detected.

Total pulmonary vein occlusion as a consequence of catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation mimicking primary lung disease.

Introduction: Catheter ablation has recently been used for curative treatment of atrial fibrillation.

Methods And Results: Three of 239 patients who underwent ablation close to the pulmonary vein (PV) ostia at our institute developed severe hemoptysis, dyspnea, and pneumonia as early as 1 week and as late as 6 months after the ablation. Because the patients were arrhythmia-free, the treating physician initially attributed the symptoms to new-onset pulmonary disease (e.

Electroanatomic substrate of idiopathic left ventricular tachycardia: unidirectional block and macroreentry within the purkinje network.

Background: An abnormal potential (retroPP) from the left posterior Purkinje network has been demonstrated during sinus rhythm (SR) in some patients with idiopathic left ventricular tachycardia (ILVT). We hypothesized that this potential can specifically be identified and be a critical substrate for ILVT.

Methods And Results: In 9 patients with ILVT and 6 control patients who underwent mapping of the left ventricle during SR using 3-dimensional electroanatomic mapping, an area with retroPP was found within the posterior Purkinje fiber network only in patients with ILVT.