Mitral balloon valvuloplasty in pregnancy: limiting radiation and procedure time by using transesophageal echocardiography.

A 35-year-old female with mitral stenosis was admitted to hospital in her 23rd week of gestation for management of disabling dyspnea and paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea. She was in New York Heart Association functional class III and underwent successful percutaneous balloon mitral valvuloplasty with significant improvement of her symptoms. To limit radiation exposure and procedure time, transesophageal echocardiography was used in combination with pulsed fluoroscopy.

Patient-management problems as a learning tool for the continuing medical education of general practitioners.

The value of Patient-Management Problems (PMPs as a learning tool for continuing medical education was studied by using two frequently seen cardiovascular problems (angina and high blood pressure) and a province-wide sample of full-time general practitioners. The results indicate that PMPs can be a motivating and effective means of CME for the general practitioner; that knowledge was gained through the successive resolution of three pmps; that corrective feedback enhanced learning; and, that most of the knowledge gained on the paper cases was transferred to practice as reported by the participants on a questionnaire. Furthermore, while cueing may be a confounding factor when PMPs are used for evaluation purposes, it was shown to facilitate learning in the present learning context.

Predictive value of atrial pacing test for survival of patients with coronary artery disease.

There is evidence that patients with signs of poor left ventricular function or marked ischemia at low work load during an exercise test have a poor prognosis for survival. To determine whether a pacing test can provide similar information, the 6-yr survival rate was computed in 118 medically-treated patients who had undergone a standardized atrial pacing test. Among the 118 patients, 80 had significant coronary artery disease (CAD).