[Ambulatory ECG in the peroperative period].

The clinical recognition of perioperative myocardial necrosis represents one of the clue factors in the management of cardiac surgical patients (pts). This study was performed to determine whether there is any relationship between reperfusion ventricular fibrillation and/or ST-segment elevation and postoperative enzymatic release. Serum enzyme levels and ECG were monitored during and after cardiac operations in 23 pts (15 for valvular replacement and 8 for aortocoronary bypass graft).

In vitro identification of different degrees of mitral valve disease by online evaluation of radiofrequency ultrasound signal.

Sixty five mitral valves were studied in vitro with a 2.25 MHz transducer. Radiofrequency signals were analysed by a microprocessor system (implemented on an M-mode commercially available echocardiography) for online evaluation of ultrasonic backscatter (8 bits of amplitude resolution, 40 MHz sampling rate, 1 microsecond acquisition gate).

[Pseudoaneurysm of a branch of the internal mammary artery in a case operated on for aortic coarctation].

False aneurysm of the internal mammary artery (IMA) is a rare complication of closure of median sternotomy by peristernal wiring. In this report a case of a false aneurysm of a branch of the internal mammary artery following a surgical repair of a complex cardiac anomaly in a patient with a previously dilated mammary artery system for pre-existing coarctation of the aorta is described. In our opinion a special attention has to be given to the course of the IMA and its collaterals whenever a median sternotomy is required to treat an aortic coarctation or its associated diseases, considering the possibility of ligation of vessels at risk of being damaged by the sutures used for closure of the sternal and rectus sheath incisions.

Cardiac damage due to nonpenetrating trauma. Report of four cases.

Four examples of cardiac damage secondary to nonpenetrating trauma in road accidents are described. Two patients had interventricular septal defect and other two had tricuspid insufficiency. In all four cases the lesion was not recognized at the time of the accident but became clinically important later.

[Correlation between electrocardiographic and echocardiographic findings in chronic aortic insufficiency].

Echocardiographic indices of left ventricular volume and mass and electrocardiographic indices of left ventricular hypertrophy have evaluated in 25 patients with chronic aortic regurgitation and in 10 normal subjects. When the patients with aortic regurgitation were subdivided in three groups with increasing evidence of left ventricular hypertrophy, the echocardiographic measures of left ventricular dimension and mass were also found to be increased, with statistically significant differences between patients and controls and among the three groups of patients as well. A specially constructed cumulative electrocardiographic index of left ventricular hypertrophy (Sokolow and Lyon's index plus Lewis' index plus strain pattern) is correlated with the left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (r = 0.

[Echocardiographic features of the St. Jude Medical valve prosthesis (author's transl)].

The St. Jude Medical (SJM) valve is a new low-profile bileaflet prosthesis with central flow, low transvalvular gradients and low thrombogenicity. Echocardiographic features of 212 correctly functioning SJM prostheses implanted in 160 patients were studied.