Constrictive pericarditis presenting as unexplained recurrent pleural effusion: a case report.

Constrictive pericarditis may exceptionally present as pleural effusion of unknown origin and this form of presentation may cause diagnostic problems. We report a case of subacute constrictive pericarditis in which there were recurrent pleural effusion with no other signs of the disease and the initial echocardiographic study was nondiagnostic. For this reason the patient was initially considered to have primary pulmonary or pleural disease.

Doppler echocardiographic evaluation of left ventricular end-diastolic pressure in patients with coronary artery disease.

Pulmonary venous flow velocity recordings have been found to be useful in complementing the information obtained from the mitral flow velocity and improving the assessment of left ventricular diastolic pressures. This study was undertaken to evaluate the accuracy of mitral flow and pulmonary venous flow variables, recorded by transthoracic Doppler echocardiography, in estimating left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) in 101 consecutive patients with coronary artery disease undergoing diagnostic left-sided heart catheterization. Patients were assigned to three groups according to the values of LVEDP (group 1, < or = 12 mm Hg; group 2, between 13 and 19 mm Hg; and group 3, > or = 20 mm Hg).

The diisobutyryl ester of N-methyldopamine, ibopamine: evaluation of electrophysiological properties and arrhythmogenicity studies.

The electrophysiological properties of ibopamine (SB-7505), the 3,4-diisobutyryl ester N-methyldopamine, was evaluated in 8 patients with syncopes of unknown etiology or with suspected disease of the sinus node or due to I-II degree AV block. A complete electrophysiological examination, including atrial and ventricular stimulation, was performed both in baseline conditions and within 1 h after oral administration of ibopamine 200 mg in a single dose. The study showed a slight reduction in effective refractory periods in the right atrium (-4.