Noninvasive cardiac-specific biomarkers for the diagnosis and prevention of vascular stenosis in cardiovascular disorder.

Background: The most frequent lesion in the blood vessels feeding the myocardium is vascular stenosis, a condition that develops slowly but can prove to be deadly in a long run. Non-invasive biomarkers could play a significant role in timely diagnosis, detection and management for vascular stenosis events associated with cardiovascular disorders.

Aims: The study aimed to investigate high sensitivity troponin I (hs-TnI), cardiac troponin I (c-TnI) and high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) that may be used solely or in combination in detecting the extent of vascular stenosis in CVD patients.

Ratchet-traction effect: an underdiagnosed mechanism of pacing lead dislodgement.

Pacing lead dislodgement contributes substantially, to the list of causes of early pacemaker failure. Reel's syndrome is a rare cause of pacemaker failure, resulting from the dislodging of pacing electrodes by manipulation of the pulse generator by the patient. We describe here an intriguing case of pacemaker lead dislodgement by a novel and frequently underdiagnosed mechanism that mimicked the fluoroscopic diagnosis of reel's syndrome.

Juvenile rheumatic mitral stenosis in association with perimembranous ventricular septal defect in a 3-year-old boy.

Rheumatic mitral stenosis (MS) is a well-known entity in the developing world. Though rarely seem, MS can present at a very young age with severe symptoms. We describe here an unusual association of a large perimembranous ventricular septal defect with juvenile rheumatic MS leading to severe pulmonary hypertension and heart failure in a very young child.

Pacemaker lead induced inferior vena caval thrombosis leading to portal hypertension.

Inferior vena caval thrombosis is an unusual complication of permanent pacemaker implantation. The clinical presentation due to thrombosis depends on the site of thrombus. We have described here a rare case of pacemaker lead associated thrombosis of inferior vena cava, its diagnostic work up and briefly reviewed the existing literature of this uncommon complication.

Successful recanalization of a left anterior descending chronic total occlusion via an ipsilateral intraseptal collateral using reverse CART technique.

The retrograde approach using collaterals has been introduced for percutaneous dilatation and opening of chronic total occlusion of the coronary arteries. The controlled antegrade and retrograde tracking (CART) strategy has been developed to improve guidewire crossing and successful recanalization. We herein describe a case of left anterior descending chronic total occlusion that was successfully recanalized using ipsilateral intraseptal collateral by reverse CART technique.

Giant intrapericardial lipoma: an unusual cause of dyspnoea.

The pericardial lipomas are rare benign cardiac tumors. The clinical presentation of these cardiac neoplasms varies according to the site of growth. We describe here a case of massive intrapericardial lipoma leading to severe dyspnea, its diagnostic work up and briefly review the existing literature of this uncommon disorder.

Left hemitruncus with tetralogy of fallot and right aortic arch: rare survival beyond the first decade.

Hemitruncus is an uncommon congenital anomaly that has been described in isolation or in association with other congenital cardiac malformations. This report describes a rare case of left hemitruncus with tetralogy of Fallot and a right-sided aortic arch. The patient presented to us in the early second decade.

Delineation of anatomy of the ruptured sinus of Valsalva with three-dimensional echocardiography: the advantage of the added dimension.

The rupture of sinus of Valsalva is a rare complication of infective endocarditis. Three-dimensional (3D) echocardiography represents an important adjunctive tool to demonstrate the ruptured sinus of Valsalva with better delineation of its characteristics. We present an adult patient with rupture of right sinus of Valsalva aneurysm due to infective endocarditis of the aortic valve, in whom the two-dimensional (2D) transthoracic echocardiogram erroneously localized the site of rupture into the right atrium.

Aneurysmal aorto-right ventricular tunnel.

A successful closure of an aneurysmal aorto-right ventricular tunnel (ARVT) in a 16-year-old male patient is reported here. An attempt at device closure had failed in this patient. Diagnosis was confirmed by Doppler echocardiography, 3-dimensional computed tomography, and cardiac catheterization.

Effect of pioglitazone and rosiglitazone on mediators of endothelial dysfunction, markers of angiogenesis and inflammatory cytokines in type-2 diabetes.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of PPAR-gamma agonists (pioglitazone and rosiglitazone) on mediators of endothelial dysfunction and markers of angiogenesis in patients with type-2 diabetes. Pioglitazone group showed favorable reductions in serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL cholesterol, VLDL cholesterol and increase in HDL cholesterol as compared to rosiglitazone group, after 16 weeks of treatment and also with control group. There was significant reduction of CRP level in pioglitazone and rosiglitazone group.