Cardiology Journal 2009, tom 16, nr 4

Recent advances in noninvasive cardiac imaginghave opened new opportunities for detecting clinically silent coronary artery disease (CAD). Coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) is an excellent example...

A 25 year-old female with a history of Caesarian section ten weeks ago presented with symptoms suggestive of pulmonary embolism. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed a free-floating large thrombus traversing the right atrial cavity. Transesophageal echocardiography confirmed the presence of an unattached thrombus that originated from the most proximal part of the inferior vena cava...

Intra-aortic balloon pumps (IABP) are commonly used in the setting of an acute myocardial infarction that is complicated by cardiogenic shock or mechanical complications such as a ventricular septal defect or papillary muscle rupture. IABP has also been shown to be useful in patients with refractory and hemodynamically unstable ventricular arrhythmias and refractory post-myocardial infarction angina...

Papillary muscle rupture is an infrequent but often fatal mechanical complication of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). We report the case of an AMI complicated by the development of an abrupt cardiogenic shock due to the rupture of the head of the postero-medial papillary muscle with echocardiographic demonstration of severe mitral regurgitation due to flail posterior mitral valve leaflet...

Atrial thrombus formation in patients with atrial flutter raises concerns of stroke risk. We investigated patients with isthmus-dependent atrial flutter for coagulation abnormalities before and after cardioversion to sinus rhythm by catheter ablation, and evaluated the relationship of the abnormalities to the echocardiographic risk markers of stroke...

Decreased left ventricle ejection fraction (LVEF) is a predictor of poor late outcome in patients with mitral regurgitation (MR). The relationship between pre-operative forward stroke volume (SV) and right heart parameters and perioperative outcome in patients with MR has been little studied...

Our study’s aim was to evaluate the prognostic value of early and intensive lipid-lowering treatment on ventricular premature beat or non-sustained ventricular tachycardia (NSVT) after acute coronary syndrome (STEMI, non-STEMI, and unstable angina pectoris)...

There is limited data regarding the clinical utility of cystatin C in patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD). The aim of this study was to determine the predictive value of cystatin C for the presence and severity of CAD and the association between this protein and other biochemical risk factors for atherosclerosis in patients with suspected CAD...

We sought to explore whether the simplified Selvester QRS scoring system could predict ST segment resolution in patients with first acute ST segment elevation myocardial infarction who receive pharmacological reperfusion therapy....

Lithium overdoses causing cardiotoxicity are uncommon and electrocardiographic changes suggesting myocardial ischemia are rare. However, some authors have specifically reported the occurrence of ischemic electrocardiography changes due to a lithium overdose...