Left ventricular hemangioma.

A young Saudi woman presented with symptoms of palpitation, near syncope, anxiety, and fatigue. Transthoracic echocardiography showed a left ventricular mass. Under cardiopulmonary bypass, brief cardioplegic arrest, and the aid of a thoracoscope, the mass was resected.

Vacuum-assisted closure system in treatment of postoperative mediastinitis.

Objectives: Post-cardiac surgery mediastinitis is a serious complication with high morbidity and high financial costs. Using a vacuum-assisted closure system is the established line of treatment for mediastinitis, which improves outcome, especially in the high-risk group of patients.

Methods: From January 2007 to April 2011, a retrospective study was carried out to evaluate the outcome of vacuum-assisted closure in the treatment of postoperative mediastinitis.

Impressive echocardiographic images of a rare pathology: Aneurysm of the mitral valve - Report of two cases and review of the literature.

Aneurysm of the mitral valve (AMV) is rarely reported. The etiology of this unusual pathology is commonly attributed to aortic valve endocarditis (AVE) with aortic regurgitation (AR) or connective tissue disease. We present two recent cases of AMV with good correlation between pre-operative trans-esophageal echocardiography (TEE), intra-operative real-time 3-dimensional echocardiography (RT-3D-Echo) and surgical findings.

The obesity paradox in patients with acute coronary syndrome: results from the Gulf RACE-2 study.

We investigated the association between in-hospital and peri-hospital mortality and body mass index (BMI)/waist circumference (WC) in a prospective acute coronary syndrome (ACS) registry in the Arabian Gulf. No significant associations with in-hospital mortality were found. Normal BMI had highest peri-hospital mortality, notably those with high WC.