Evaluation of left ventricular function of pregnant women with autoimmune diseases using speckle tracking echocardiography.

Pregnancy can cause fluctuations in autoimmune diseases (AD) women, which may aggravate the cardiac damage. Maternal heart function is very important for maternal and fetal health. Therefore, early and accurate evaluation of the heart function of AD pregnant women is necessary.

Evaluation of cardiac function and systolic dyssynchrony of fetuses exposed to maternal autoimmune diseases using speckle tracking echocardiography.

Objectives: To compare cardiac function and systolic dyssynchrony of fetuses not exposed to and those exposed to maternal autoimmune antibodies using two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography (2DSTE).

Methods: An observational study of 52 fetuses, 18 from mothers with autoimmune antibodies (anti-SSA/Ro60, anti-Ro52 or/and anti-SSB/La) and 34 from healthy mothers without antibodies, was conducted. Maternal baseline characteristics, fetoplacental Doppler parameters, and conventional echocardiographic data were prospectively collected.

A primary benign cardiac tumor misdiagnosed as cardiac metastasis in the right atrium.

We present a patient with breast cancer with multiple metastases who had an unusual cardiac mass in the right atrium. The cardiac mass was initially diagnosed as malignant metastasis by transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) but subsequently diagnosed as benign by contrast-enhanced ultrasonography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT). TTE is the preferred imaging method for examination of cardiac masses.

Right atrial appendage aneurysm complicated with atrial septal defect: A rare case report.

Right atrial appendage aneurysms (RAAAs) are rare heart malformations, presenting as isolated anomalies or co-existing with other structural heart diseases. We describe a rare case of RAAA complicated with an atrial septal defect (ASD). The diagnosis was established using transthoracic echocardiography and confirmed using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging.

Right coronary artery-right ventricular fistula complicated with infective endocarditis.

Coronary artery fistula (CAF) is a congenital disease in which a communication forms between one or more coronary arteries and a cardiac chamber or great vessel. We describe an infrequent case of right coronary artery (RCA) fistula into the right ventricle (RV) complicated by infective endocarditis in a child. The patient received echocardiography and contrast-enhanced multidetector computed tomography (MDCT).

Divergence of affinities, serotypes and virulence factor between CTX-M Escherichia coli and non-CTX-M producers.

This study was undertaken to discern the differences of the multi-locus sequence typing (MLST), O serogroups, and virulence factors among 34 CTX-M-1 Escherichia coli, 49 CTX-M-9 strains and 23 non-CTX-M isolates from chickens in Henan province, China. The MLST scheme yielded 34 sequence types, in which ST155 and ST359 were frequent (17% and 15%, respectively) and associated with zoonotic disease. The irp-2 (20% versus 2%, P = 0.