Aortic dissection following intraaortic balloon insertion: recognition by transesophageal echocardiography.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M N Kotler.
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Prosthetic valve endocarditis is a formidable complication following cardiac valve replacement. Surgical intervention has resulted in a significant reduction in mortality when certain complications prevail. We report two such cases of prosthetic valve endocarditis in which the use of transesophageal echocardiography permitted close surveillance during medical therapy and thus avoided the need for surgical intervention. Therefore, with the improved ability to monitor disease progression with transesophageal echocardiography, nonsurgical management of prosthetic valve endocarditis remains an option.
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Congenital coronary artery fistulas are important coronary artery anomalies. Bilateral coronary artery fistulas are very rare and coronary artery to left ventricular communications are even more infrequent. This report describes a patient with bilateral right and left coronary artery fistulas draining into a common channel and emptying into the left ventricular cavity.
Ninety-one patients with dilated cardiomyopathy were studied by two-dimensional, pulsed, and color Doppler echocardiography (1) to detect and quantify mitral regurgitation (MR), (2) to record apical flow velocities in systole and diastole, and (3) to detect the presence of left ventricular thrombi. MR was detected in 57% of the patients and thrombi were present in 40%, but the occurrence of both MR and thrombus was rare (8%). Apical flow velocity was significantly higher throughout the cardiac cycle in the group with MR (diastole 15 +/- 7 vs 9 +/- 7 cm/sec; systole 29 +/- 12 vs 16 +/- 13 cm/sec; p less than 0.001 for both), accounting for the rarity of thrombi in this group. Follow-up data on 89% of the patients showed markedly decreased survival in the group with MR (22% vs 60% at 32 +/- 6 months, p less than 0.005), and this was evident even in patients with mild MR. Thus although MR is a noninvasively obtainable marker of a large subgroup of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy "protected" from left ventricular thrombus formation, it is a sensitive marker of decreased survival.
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A 66-year-old hypertensive woman presented with epigastric and scapular pain on the basis of type 3 aortic dissection. Appropriate therapy with a combined alpha-adrenergic and beta-adrenergic antagonist agent prevented further ongoing dissection and amelioration of symptoms. On day 5, an episode of coronary vasospasm occurred presumably due to beta-blockade with unopposed alpha-adrenergic activity.
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Four patients developed hypotension after heart surgery. Hemodynamic measurements revealed elevated right atrial pressure with normal pulmonary capillary wedge pressure. Conventional transthoracic two-dimensional echocardiography was technically suboptimal for detection of pericardial effusion. In each patient transesophageal echocardiography demonstrated significant compression of the right atrium by a localized mass. At reoperation atrial compression by an organized hematoma was found and in each instance successfully drained. Thus, transesophageal echocardiography is superior to transthoracic echocardiography in evaluating critically ill postoperative hypotensive patients and can differentiate isolated right atrial tamponade from other causes of hemodynamic deterioration such as prosthetic valve dysfunction or left ventricular systolic dysfunction, or both.
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In an attempt to determine whether mural thrombus in a dilated left ventricle is associated with specific flow patterns, a study was undertaken to assess qualitatively and quantitatively the flow characteristics by conventional pulsed and two-dimensional Doppler color flow examination. Forty patients with cardiomyopathy formed the study group (20 with an apical thrombus and 20 without). The groups did not differ with respect to age, gender, origin of ventricular dysfunction, ventricular size and ejection fraction. Guided by the Doppler color flow pattern, a quantitative analysis of flow velocity profile in the ventricular inflow and outflow "compartments" was performed by serial pulsed wave Doppler sampling. Inflow velocity at the ventricular apex was significantly lower in the thrombus group than in the no thrombus group (11.7 +/- 15.3 versus 28.3 +/- 10.5 cm/s, p less than 0.0001). Flow velocities were generally lower in the thrombus group at the other levels in the inflow compartment (that is, mitral anulus, leaflet tips and papillary muscle level). The systolic flow velocity at the apex was similarly significantly lower in the thrombus group than in the no thrombus group (7.1 +/- 8.1 versus 15.3 +/- 7.0 cm/s, p less than 0.001). Additionally, a higher prevalence of mitral regurgitation was noted in the no thrombus group (14 patients) than in the thrombus group (3 patients). Thus, specific abnormal flow profiles are associated with a left ventricular thrombus. Whether the abnormal flow is a primary event in the genesis of left ventricular thrombus or occurs secondary to development of the thrombus cannot be determined from this study.