Anatomy of Myocardial Extensions in Thoracic Veins. Introduction: Radiofrequency ablation for atrial fibrillation (AF) frequently involves energy delivery at the ostia of the thoracic veins. Detailed evaluation of the myocardium extending into the caval veins, vein of Marshall, as well as at the pulmonary vein ostia has not been completely ...

Introduction: Novel therapies for myocardial infarction (MI) involving stem cells, gene therapy, biomaterials, or revascularization strategies have shown promise in animal studies and clinical trials, but results have been limited partially due to the injection of therapeutics into ischemic myocardium that cannot support their mechanism of action. Accurate targeting of ...

It is assumed that acute myocardial infarction affects renal function. To study the mechanism, we used mice following permanent ligation of their left coronary artery that results in extensive myocardial infarction. Soon after ligation, there was a marked rise in circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines and malondialdehyde (thiobarbituric acid-positive evidence of lipid ...

To evaluate police and autopsy reports in sudden unexplained deaths in 0-40 year olds. A structured, blind review of police and autopsy reports send to a cardiac genetic service from before (February 2006-December 2007) and after (January-December 2009) new best practice guidelines were introduced in Australia and New Zealand was performed. ...

Heart failure (HF) is a common cause of pleural effusion. Atrial tachyarrhythmias (ATa) can precipitate HF. ATa precipitating unilateral pleural effusion (PLE) has not been reported. We report a case of ATa in a patient with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with recurrent unilateral rightsided PLE and resolution of effusion with catheter ablation ...

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to assess the involvement and extent of lateral wall myocardial infarction (MI) in patients with a first nonanterior wall MI, as reflected by changes in precordial leads. Delayed enhancement cardiac magnetic resonance imaging was as used a gold standard to localize and quantify ...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary tumor of the liver.(1,2) The most common extrahepatic metastatic sites are lung, abdominal lymph nodes and bone, while its cardiac metastasis is rare.(2,3) Metastasis of HCC into the cardiac cavity is mostly caused by direct tumor invasion of vena cava inferior with ...

Myocardial infarction in a neonate is rare. We describe the case of a full-term male who presented with respiratory distress. A chest radiograph demonstrated cardiomegaly. An electrocardiogram revealed ST segment changes suggestive of ischemia. Cardiac enzymes were elevated and an echocardiogram revealed a regional wall motion abnormality. Cardiac catheterization was ...

Cardiac papillary fibroelastomas are the most common primary valvular tumors. Generally benign, they account only for about 10% of all primary cardiac neoplasms, can occur in normal or diseased hearts, and are associated strongly with open heart surgery and radiotherapy. They are, in most cases, incidental findings, but can be ...

OBJECTIVES: To develop an MRI compatible, percutaneous technique for the generation of non-reperfused myocardial infarct (MI). BACKGROUND: Modeling non-treated MI has major importance in the development and preclinical testing of new therapeutic strategies for patients missing the time window suitable for revascularization following MI. METHODS: In 31 male swine, non-reperfused ...

To evaluate the psychological characteristics of coronary heart disease (CHD) patients after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) by cluster analysis of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) questionnaires and to assess the impact of the profiles obtained on long-term outcome. 229 CHD patients admitted to cardiac rehabilitation filled in self-administered MMPI-2 ...

Although coronary microembolization (CME) is a frequent phenomenon in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention, few data are available on the changes in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and coronary flow reserve (CFR) after CME. In this study, six miniature swine of either sex (body weight 21-25 kg) were used to ...

An occlusion or severe stenosis (angiographic culprit lesion) of the infarct-related artery is frequently located at the site of the maximum thrombus burden, whereas the origin of the plaque rupture (the true culprit) can be situated proximal or distal to it. The aim of this study was to examine stent ...

Heart failure causes electrophysiological changes in the heart. Downregulation of repolarizing K+-currents leads to a prolongation of the cardiac action potential. Nevertheless, little is known about the differential expression of atrial and ventricular K+-channels in the failing heart. Ten rabbits underwent progressive rapid right ventricular pacing for 30 days. Digitized ECGs ...

BACKGROUND: We report a rare case of a mediastinal goiter confined to the thoracic inlet and cavity presenting with ventricular tachycardia as the sole clinical manifestation. METHODS AND RESULTS: The patient did not have any of the typical features of a mediastinal goiter such as neck swelling, dysphagia, or respiratory ...

OBJECTIVESThe effects of operational modes of intra-aortic balloon pumping (IABP) on coronary haemodynamics and oxygen delivery/demand ratio are unknown and were investigated in an experimental model of myocardial ischaemia reperfusion.METHODSHealthy swine (n = 24) underwent 120-minute ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery followed by 24 h of reperfusion and were randomly ...

Long-term endurance sports are associated with atrial remodeling and an increased risk for atrial fibrillation (AF) and atrial flutter. Pro-atrial natriuretic peptide (pro-ANP) is a marker of atrial wall tension and elevated in patients with AF. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that atrial remodeling would ...

Background: Ventricular over-drainage is a common complication of dysfunctional ventriculoperitoneal devices. Subdural haematomas are usually the most common lesions associated with that complication. Such lesions may arise after ventricular collapse and bridging veins disruption that follows over-drainage, thus contributing to distortion of brain parenchyma, increased intracranial hypertension and neurological decline. ...

The role of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) in percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) is still controversial despite several previously published meta-analyses. A meta-analysis to evaluate the controversial role of IVUS-guided PCI with bare-metal stenting was performed and a previous published meta-analysis was re-evaluated in order to clarify the discrepancy between results ...

Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) provides a potential marker of biological age, closely related to the endothelial dysfunction and consequently to the atherosclerotic process. To investigate the relationship between the LTL and the risk of premature acute myocardial infarction and to evaluate the predictive value of LTL on the onset of ...

We report the case of an immunocompetent 83-year-old man with metastatic neoplastic infiltration of the heart from primary squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the skin. Death was from cardiopulmonary collapse due to left ventricular failure with features of right ventricular inflow tract obstruction. Metastatic tumours involving the heart rarely originate ...

Holter electrocardiogram recording revealed symptomatic prolonged ventricular standstill lasting for about two minutes which terminated without any external cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Ann Noninvasive Electrocardiol 2012;17(1):61-62.

Thyroid hormone exerts numerous effects on the cardiovascular system. Hypothyroidism can lead to various electrocardiographic and mechanical changes in the heart and blood vessels.The potential risk for sudden cardiac death in patients with hypothyroidism have never been properly explored. However, numerous reports of various electrocardiographic changes indicative of such a ...

We describe a case of 78-year-old woman with a 1-week history of fever and left hemiparesis. Head magnetic resonance imaging showed a small infarct. After admission, she showed altered consciousness and another small infarct. She finally had diagnoses of miliary tuberculosis (miliary-TB) and tuberculous meningitis (TBM). She recovered after receiving ...

We report a case of thymic carcinoma that was initially detected by echocardiography in an 80-year-old male who visited the emergency room for chest pain and had a history of myocardial infarction and percutaneous coronary intervention. Transthoracic echocardiography showed a huge extracardiac mass that was located in the anterior mediastinum ...

Double Chamber Tachycardias Originating from the Aortic Sinus of Valsalva. Monomorphic ventricular tachycardia is basically a benign phenomenon in patients without structural heart disease. The focal source of the tachycardia is usually located in the right ventricular outflow tract and more rarely in the left ventricular outflow tract. Aortic sinus ...

Atrial Septum, Coronary Sinus, and Atrioventricular Node. Introduction: The tissues in the posteroinferior atrioventricular (AV) junction around the AV node are important in procedures for ablating and manipulation of catheters in and around the coronary sinus (CS). However, information with regard to the histological arrangement of perinodal myocardium relative to ...

At 2:10 pm, a 40-year-old Caucasian woman with no known medical history called 911 complaining of substernal, crushing chest pain that had started 2 to 3 hours before she called emergency medical services (EMS). EMS arrived at 2:24 pm and obtained a 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) diagnostic of ST-segment elevation myocardial ...

It is well known that atrial infarctions are rare comparing to the ventricular. They cannot easily be verified on ECG and the standard autopsy technique does not include a detailed review of the atrial wall, so the atrial infarction often remains undiagnosed. A 63-year-old male was treated and died in ...

Cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) is an accelerated form of coronary artery disease affecting both intramyocardial and epicardial coronary arteries and is observed in patients during long-term survival after cardiac transplantation. We report a case of CAV complicated with silent transmural myocardial infarction and massive left ventricular thrombus formation associated with ...

A secondary r' wave in V(1) on surface electrocardiogram (ECG) has been described in association with left ventricular preexcitation via an accessory pathway. We present a case that demonstrates the mechanism for this ECG observation. Ann Noninvasive Electrocardiol 2011;16(4):407-408.

BACKGROUND: Left ventricular hypertrabeculation/noncompaction (LVNC) is a cardiac abnormality whose echocardiographic criteria are still controversial. Cooperation between echocardiographic laboratories may contribute to uniformly accepted criteria, as illustrated by the following pilot study. METHODS AND RESULTS: Echocardiograms proposed for inclusion into a registry were reviewed. Three experts with 17-26years experience with ...

Myocardial hemorrhage after myocardial infarction (MI) usually goes undetected. We investigated the diagnostic accuracy of bright-blood T(2)-weighted cardiac MRI for myocardial hemorrhage in experimental MI. MI was created in swine by occluding the left anterior descending (n=10) or circumflex (n=5) coronary arteries for 90 minutes followed by reperfusion for ≤3 ...

Cardiovascular diseases can lead to sudden in-flight incapacitation and long-term disability in aircraft pilots. Electrocardiogram (ECG) has been widely used to screen for these diseases in routine aeromedical examinations. Several ECG changes such as complete left bundle-branch block (CLBBB) and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) have been associated with increased likelihood ...

The study purpose is to determine whether numeric and/or graphic ST measurements added to the display of the 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) would influence cardiologists' decision to provide myocardial reperfusion therapy. Twenty ECGs with borderline ST-segment deviation during elective percutaneous coronary intervention and 10 controls before balloon inflation were included. Only ...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with metastasis to the heart is uncommon. We report a rare case of left atrial metastasis of HCC which was resected palliatively as a live-saving procedure with the use of cardiopulmonary bypass. Despite chemoembolization, which was undertaken 11 times, cardiac metastasis occurred. Moreover, the right and left ...

To assess the nature of necroinflammatory changes identified in postmortem histological sections of the right ventricular myocardium in cases of fatal pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE). A retrospective study examining coronial autopsy cases (n = 28, age 58 ± 21 years, 9 men/19 women) of PTE in which isolated right ventricular myocardial ...

BACKGROUND: By gating image acquisition in myocardial perfusion SPECT (MPS) to ECG, left ventricular (LV) volumes and function can be determined. Several previous studies have shown that existing MPS software packages underestimate LV volumes compared to cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR). The aim of this study was therefore to develop a ...

Background: Cardiac myxoma, the most common primary tumor of the heart, has variable clinical presentations and an immunohistochemical profile. Survivin, an antiapoptosis protein, may play an important role in the causes of cardiac myxoma. This investigation will report the expression pattern of survivin in cardiac myxomas. Methods: This study included ...

Cardiac positioning and stabilization during myocardial revascularization without extracorporeal circulation (ECC) may cause hemodynamic changes dependent to the surgical site. The objective of this study was to evaluate these changes during distal coronary anastomosis. Twenty adult patients undergoing myocardial revascularization without ECC were monitored by pulmonary artery catheter and transesophageal ...

A 50-year-old man with a history of renal cell carcinoma was admitted with ventricular tachycardia. Echocardiography showed a mass in the apex of the left ventricle. Cardiac magnetic resonance confirmed a mass infiltrating the anterior-apical wall of the left ventricle. This is the first case describing an association between ventricular ...

Aims The aim was to study regional fractionation and dominant frequency (DF) to determine if any relationship exists between the two parameters and also to assess the impact of limited left atrial ablation. Methods and results Patients undergoing catheter ablation of persistent AF using three-dimensional navigation were studied. Regional left ...

AIM: We aim to describe the coronial findings of young adults where the out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) aetiology was 'presumed cardiac'. METHODS: Presumed cardiac aetiology OHCAs occurring in young adults aged 16-39 years were identified using the Victorian Ambulance Cardiac Arrest Registry (VACAR) and available coronial findings reviewed. RESULTS: We ...

BACKGROUND: Sense of coherence is a theoretical construct which is used to measure the degree to which a person finds the world comprehensible, manageable and meaningful. AIM: The main aim of the present study was to assess the hypothesis of Antonovsky that meaningfulness is the most crucial component in sense ...

Due to its hemostatic effect, local epinephrine has been used to minimize mucosal bleeding during endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD), but its clinical benefit remains unclear. On the other hand, several adverse events deemed to be caused by epinephrine have been observed during ESD. A 73-year-old woman developed myocardial infarction after ...

Background: It is normally necessary to use more than 1 coronary catheter in primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) for ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). We explored the utility of a single guide catheter (Q) strategy for complete coronary assessment and treatment in PPCI. Methods: Fifty-seven consecutive STEMI cases undergoing invasive ...

Sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction is a frequent and severe complication of septic shock. The mechanisms responsible for its development are complex and intricate. Echocardiography is the best method to make the diagnosis of cardiac dysfunction. Biomarkers (B-type natriuretic peptides and cardiac troponins) can alert clinicians of the possibility of cardiac dysfunction. ...

Our objective was to test the hypothesis that retinoic acid supplementation could attenuate ventricular remodelling induced by tobacco smoke exposure in rats. Wistar rats were allocated into three groups: control (C, n = 8); exposed to tobacco smoke (ETS, n = 9); exposed to tobacco smoke and all-trans-retinoic acid (ETS-RA, ...

Primary cardiac sarcomas are rare tumors with unfavorable prognosis. We report a 69-year-old male with a right ventricular mass diagnosed as primary malignant cardiac sarcoma with unexpected long survival of 16.5 months.

Redo coronary artery bypass grafting surgery (CABG) is associated with a higher risk of mortality than the first operation. However, the impact of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) on the outcome in such patients is currently unclear. We evaluated the in-hospital and six-month clinical outcomes of post-CABG patients who underwent PCI ...