A centrally acting antihypertensive, clonidine, combined to a venous dilator, nitroglycerin, to handle severe pulmonary edema.

A patient, with known left ventricular failure presented with severe pulmonary edema, an ejection fraction of 10% to 15%, knee mottling, and lactates of 7 mM L⁻¹. He was treated with unusually high-dose nitroglycerin (NTG) intravenously (IV; NTG ≈ 70 mg for 1 hour). To suppress dyspnea, systolic blood pressure had to be lowered from ≈ 150-160 to ≈ 100-120 mm Hg.

Chronic atrial fibrillation ablation impact on endocrine and mechanical cardiac functions.

Aims: Assess the impact of persistent/permanent atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation on endocrine and mechanical cardiac functions.

Methods And Results: In all, 43 patients (40 males, 53 +/- 12 years) undergoing persistent/permanent AF ablation had atrial (ANP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) measurements before day 1, 3, and 3 months after ablation. In the same period of time transthoracic echocardiography was performed.

Cardiac hemangioma presenting as atypical chest pain.

A 44-year-old man presented with atypical chest pain and dyspnea. Investigation revealed the presence of a 15-mm rounded, well-vascularized left-ventricular mass. The mass was removed surgically and histopathologic evaluation identified a cardiac hemangioma.