The art of reading the 12-lead ECG is diminishing. Young cardiologists are focusing on mastering newer and more direct cardiac imaging techniques, such as echocardiography, computed tomography, and MRI, and they are devoting less effort to mastering the ECG. Yet the ECG is still widely used in clinical practice for evaluating patients with chest pain, shortness of breath, palpitations, syncope, and various other signs and symptoms. We're happy to announce a new section titled Focus on ECGs, beginning with the February issue of the Journal. This section will present a case with interesting and challenging ECGs,
Our country is remarkably generative in the development of new diagnostic tests, drugs, and procedures—and remarkably undisciplined in their deployment.1 The ever-increasing cost of health care is reason for every American to be concerned. In 2008, for example, healthcare expenditures in the United States reached $2.4 trillion,2 accounting for 16% of gross domestic product.3 By 2013, these expenditures had risen to almost $3 trillion annually, 17.4% of gross domestic product.4 Worse still is the amount of wasteful spending in health care. A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers' Health Research Institute, published in 2010, calculated wasteful
We welcome the opportunity to comment on Yalcinkaya and colleagues' report of a Starr-Edwards (SE) mitral valve that is still functioning after 41 years.1 We too have some long-lived SE valve patients in our own historical follow-up records, which we established over 50 years ago, beginning with the first patient in whom we implanted the valve. As of November 2015, our longest-lived survivor has had her original ball-valve prosthesis in the aortic position for 51.7 years (more than 2 billion heartbeats), and our longest-functioning mitral valve has lasted for 44.4 years. We are gratified, but not surprised, by
At 22 months of age, Larry Graves was diagnosed with a ventricular septal defect that carried a sentence of death in early childhood. At age 8, he had corrective surgery and became the first child in the world to have a totally implanted pacemaker. Thereafter, he was hailed around the planet as “The Boy with the Electrified Heart.”1 His is a story about a desperate patient, loving parents committed to saving their child at any cost, caring communities, pioneering doctors, and collaborating medical institutions. Barbara Ann and Thomas Graves married young. When times were good, factoriesA Shaky Beginning
“. . . for the secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient.” —FWP We physicians have been taught that if we listen to our patients, they will probably tell us their diagnosis. Our challenge is to have the skill and patience to hear what they say. Listening and hearing seem to be vanishing from our evolving medical-practice environment; it often seems easier to order extensive laboratory tests or imaging procedures (or, more likely, to have an assistant order them) before we even see the patient. Relying chiefly on test results can mislead us and
We reviewed the cases of 100 patients (mean age, 73 ± 10 yr; 64 men) who had mitral valve replacement with a Medtronic Mosaic porcine bioprosthesis from 1995 through 2011. The mean New York Heart Association (NYHA) class was 3 ± 0.7, and 52 patients were in atrial fibrillation. Prosthetic sizes were chiefly 27 mm (50 patients) and 29 mm (40 patients). Follow-up ended in December 2012 and is 97% complete, with a cumulative duration of 611 patient-years (mean duration, 6 ± 4.6 yr; maximum, 17.7 yr). The early mortality rate was 10% (6% in elective patients); late deaths occurred in 31 patients (5 valve-related). Actuarial survival rates at 5, 10, and 15 years were 74% ± 5%, 50% ± 6%, and 37% ± 8%. The mean NYHA class in survivors was 1.4 ± 0.6 (P <0.0001). Thromboembolic episodes occurred in 4 patients, with an actuarial freedom at 15 years of 91% ± 5%. No cases of endocarditis were observed. Four patients needed reoperation, 2 for structural failure, and 1 each for perivalvular leakage and valve thrombosis. Actuarial freedom from structural failure and from reoperation, respectively, was 93% ± 5% and 91% ± 5% at 15 years. Echocardiographic follow-up in 24 patients with 27-mm prostheses showed a mean gradient of 5 ± 1.7 mmHg and an effective orifice area of 1.57 ± 0.3 cm2; in 16 patients with 29-mm prostheses, the mean gradient was 4.5 ± 1.9 mmHg, and the effective orifice area, 1.63 ± 0.4 cm2. During nearly 17 years of follow-up, the Mosaic bioprosthesis has shown good overall clinical and hemodynamic performance after mitral valve replacement.
Aortic root abscess is the most severe sequela of infective endocarditis, and its surgical management is a complicated procedure because of the high risk of morbidity and death. Twenty-seven patients were included in this 15-year retrospective study: 21 (77.8%) with native- and 6 (22.2%) with prosthetic-valve endocarditis. The surgical reconstruction of the aortic root consisted of aortic valve replacement in 19 patients (70.4%) with (11) or without (8) a pericardial patch, or total aortic root replacement in 7 patients (25.9%); 5 of the 27 (18.5%) underwent the modified Bentall procedure with the flanged conduit. Only one patient (3.7%) underwent subaortic pericardial patch reconstruction without valve replacement. A total of 7 patients (25.9%) underwent reoperation: 6 with prior valve surgery, and 1 with prior isolated sinus of Valsalva repair. The mean follow-up period was 6.8 ± 3.7 years. There were 6 (22.2%) in-hospital deaths, 3 (11.1%) of which were perioperative, among patients who underwent emergent surgery. Five patients (23.8%) died during follow-up, and the overall survival rates at 1, 5, and 10 years were 70.3% ± 5.8%, 62.9% ± 6.4%, and 59.2% ± 7.2%, respectively. Two of 21 patients (9.5%) underwent reoperation because of paravalvular leakage and early recurrence of infection during follow-up. After complete resection of the perianular abscess, replacement of the aortic root can be implemented for reconstruction of the aortic root, with or without left ventricular outflow tract injuries. Replacing the aortic root with a flanged composite graft might provide the best anatomic fit.
Epicardial adipose tissue thickness is associated with the severity and extent of atherosclerotic coronary artery disease. We prospectively investigated whether epicardial adipose tissue thickness is related to coronary artery disease extent and complexity as denoted by Gensini and Syntax scores, and whether the thickness predicts critical disease. After performing coronary angiography in 183 patients who had angina or acute myocardial infarction, we divided them into 3 groups: normal coronary arteries, noncritical disease (≥1 coronary lesion with <70% stenosis), and critical disease (≥1 coronary lesion with <70% stenosis). We used transthoracic echocardiography to measure epicardial adipose tissue thickness, then calculated Gensini and Syntax scores by reviewing the angiograms. Mean thicknesses were 4.3 ± 0.9, 5.2 ± 1.5, and 7.5 ± 1.9 mm in patients with normal coronary arteries, noncritical disease, and critical disease, respectively (P <0.001). At progressive thicknesses (<5, 5–7, and >7 mm), mean Gensini scores were 4.1 ± 5.5, 19.8 ± 15.6, and 64.9 ± 32.4, and mean Syntax scores were 4.7 ± 5.9, 16.6 ± 8.5, and 31.7 ± 8.7, respectively (both P <0.001). Thickness had strong and positive correlations with both scores (Gensini, r =0.82, P <0.001; and Syntax, r =0.825, P <0.001). The cutoff thickness value to predict critical disease was 5.75 mm (area under the curve, 0.875; 95% confidence interval, 0.825–0.926; P <0.001). Epicardial adipose tissue thickness is independently related to coronary artery disease extent and complexity as denoted by Gensini and Syntax scores, and it predicts critical coronary artery disease.
We retrospectively studied the predictive capabilities of elevated cardiac enzyme levels in terms of the prognosis of patients who were hospitalized with atrial fibrillation and who had no known coronary artery disease. Among 321 patients with atrial fibrillation, 60 without known coronary artery disease had their cardiac enzyme concentrations measured during hospitalization and underwent stress testing or cardiac catheterization within 12 months before or after hospitalization. We then compared the clinical and electrocardiographic characteristics of the 20 patients who had elevated cardiac enzyme levels and the 40 patients who had normal levels. Age, sex, and comorbidities did not differ between the groups. In the patients with elevated cardiac enzyme levels, the mean concentrations of troponin T and creatine kinase-MB isoenzymes were 0.08 ± 0.08 ng/mL and 6.49 ± 4.94 ng/mL, respectively. In univariate analyses, only peak heart rate during atrial tachyarrhythmia was predictive of elevated enzyme levels (P <0.0001). Mean heart rate was higher in the elevated-level patients (146 ± 22 vs 117 ± 29 beats/min; P=0.0007). Upon multivariate analysis, heart rate was the only independent predictor of elevated levels. Coronary artery disease was found in only 2 patients who had elevated levels and in one patient who had normal levels (P=0.26). Increased myocardial demand is probably why the presenting heart rate was predictive of elevated cardiac enzyme levels. Most patients with elevated enzyme levels did not have coronary artery disease, and none died of cardiac causes during the 6-month follow-up period. To validate our findings, larger studies are warranted.
We report our method of surgically repairing an unruptured giant aneurysm of the right coronary sinus of Valsalva, a lesion that caused moderate aortic regurgitation but no symptoms in a 61-year-old woman. We excised the aneurysm, reconstructed the right sinus of Valsalva with use of a patch, performed mechanical aortic valve replacement directly through the excised aneurysm's cavity, and constructed a single bypass graft to the right coronary artery. The patient was discharged from the hospital after 5 days. Twelve months postoperatively, her clinical and echocardiographic results were normal, and she was doing well. To our knowledge, our surgical approach to this repair has not been described previously.
Pseudoaneurysm is an uncommon sequela of infective endocarditis. We treated a 44-year-old man who had an active case of group B streptococcal infective endocarditis of the aortic valve despite no evidence of valvular dysfunction or vegetation on his initial transesophageal echocardiogram. After completing 6 weeks of intravenous antibiotic therapy, the patient developed a sinus of Valsalva pseudoaneurysm and severe aortic regurgitation caused by partial detachment of the left coronary cusp. We used a pericardial patch to close the pseudoaneurysm and repair the coronary cusp. This case shows the importance of routine clinical follow-up evaluation in infective endocarditis, even after completion of antibiotic therapy. Late sequelae associated with infective endocarditis or its therapy include recurrent infection, heart failure caused by valvular dysfunction (albeit delayed), and antibiotic toxicity such as aminoglycoside-induced nephropathy and vestibular toxicity.
Valve-sparing root replacement (the David procedure) is a valuable alternative to conventional aortic root replacement with a composite graft, especially in patients whose aortic valve leaflets have not been altered. However, reintervention rates are higher than are those associated with composite graft implantation. In this report, we present the case of a patient who had undergone valve-sparing root replacement 2 years earlier and was admitted to our hospital with myocardial infarction and cardiogenic shock secondary to coronary ostial button dissection, aortic pseudoaneurysm formation, and severe left main coronary artery compression. To our knowledge, this case is exceedingly rare. Rather than attempt local reconstruction of the mouth of the pseudoaneurysm, we excised the lesion, the aortic valve, and the graft, and we successfully implanted a composite aortic graft with a mechanical aortic valve.
Aortic dissection, a rare sequela of percutaneous coronary intervention, can be fatal when it is not recognized and treated promptly. Treatment varies from conservative management to invasive aortic repair and revascularization. We report the cases of 2 patients whose aortic dissection was caused by percutaneous coronary intervention. In addition, we present detailed analyses of 86 previously reported cases. Aortic dissection was most often seen during intervention to the right coronary artery (in 76.7% of instances). The 2 most frequently reported causes were catheter trauma (in 54% of cases) and balloon inflation (in 23.8%). The overall mortality rate was 7.1%. We conclude that most patients can be treated conservatively or by means of stenting alone, with no need for surgical intervention.
We report a highly unusual case of a 22-year-old woman with single-ventricle anatomy and a history of Fontan palliation who developed takotsubo cardiomyopathy. To our knowledge, takotsubo cardiomyopathy has not previously been described in a patient with single-ventricle anatomy, or more generally in any patient with congenital heart disease. The patient presented at our clinic for urgent examination after a 2-day history of chest pain that had begun upon the death of her dog. Invasive evaluation was refused by the patient; instead, she underwent electrocardiogram-gated coronary computed tomographic angiography, to rule out obstructive coronary disease. A physician who suspects takotsubo cardiomyopathy in a patient should look for new-onset chest pain and dyspnea coupled with these features: immediate onset of segmental akinesia in the midventricular or apical aspects of the heart, elevation of brain natriuretic peptide level 12 to 24 hours after onset of akinesia, elevation of troponin level 24 to 48 hours after onset, and disappearance of the segmental akinesia a few days after onset.
Immunosuppression is the typical measure to prevent rejection after heart transplantation. Although rejection is the usual cause of cardiac hypertrophy, numerous other factors warrant consideration. Calcineurin inhibitors rarely cause hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; the few relevant reports have described children after orthotopic kidney or liver transplantation. We present the case of a 73-year-old woman, an asymptomatic orthotopic heart transplantation patient, in whom chronic immunosuppression with prednisone and cyclosporine apparently caused a phenotype of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The natural course of her midapical hypertrophy was revealed by single-photon-emission computed tomography, positron-emission tomography, and 2-dimensional echocardiography. Clinicians and radiographers should be alert to progressive left ventricular hypertrophy and various perfusion patterns in heart transplantation patients even in the absence of underlying coronary artery disease. Toward this end, we recommend that advanced imaging methods be used to their fullest extent.
Few orthotopic heart transplantations have been performed in patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus since the first such case was reported in 2001. Since that time, advances in highly active antiretroviral therapy have resulted in potent and durable suppression of the causative human immunodeficiency virus—accompanied by robust immune reconstitution, reversal of previous immunodeficiency, a marked decrease in opportunistic and other infections, and near-normal long-term survival. Although human immunodeficiency virus infection is not an absolute contraindication, few centers in the United States and Canada have performed heart transplantations in this patient population; these patients have been de facto excluded from this procedure in North America. Re-evaluation of the reasons for excluding these patients from cardiac transplantation is warranted in light of such significant advances in antiretroviral therapy. This case report documents successful orthotopic heart transplantation in 2 patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus, and we describe their antiretroviral therapy and immunosuppressive management challenges. Both patients were doing well without sequelae 43 and 38 months after transplantation.
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement is becoming a routine procedure to treat severe symptomatic aortic stenosis. At most transcatheter aortic valve replacement centers, transapical access is a frequent alternative for use in patients whose ileofemoral access is inadequate. Transapical access is increasingly applied to a variety of other structural heart and aortic procedures as well. There is a caveat, however. When performed in elderly patients with friable myocardium, transapical access is associated with such serious sequelae as bleeding and left ventricular apical pseudoaneurysmal formation. Here, we describe the case of a 70-year-old woman who developed a left ventricular apical pseudoaneurysm 3 weeks after transapical transcatheter aortic valve replacement. Our successful repair took a minimally invasive left lateral approach that involved peripheral cardiopulmonary bypass cannulation, Foley catheter occlusion and primary defect closure, and BioGlue reinforcement.
Cone reconstruction for tricuspid valve repair has revolutionized the surgical treatment of Ebstein anomaly. We present the case of a 58-year-old woman with atypical Ebstein anomaly and right ventricular apical hypoplasia who was spared from palliative shunt physiology by our use of cone reconstruction. Compared with other techniques, cone reconstruction of the tricuspid valve more closely replicates normal valvular anatomy and function. This surgical procedure can be applied to many anatomic variations of Ebstein anomaly, as in our patient's apparently unique instance of atypical Ebstein anomaly with right ventricular apical hypoplasia.
Therapeutic radiotherapy rarely causes sarcoma, and this occurs years after completion of the intended treatment. In treating breast carcinoma, careful planning in the application of modern radiotherapeutic techniques usually can shield the heart and pericardium. We report a rare case of angiosarcoma of the pericardium, which presented in a 41-year-old woman as constrictive pericarditis 8 years after irradiation for cancer of the left breast. To our knowledge, this is only the 2nd report of angiosarcoma of the pericardium after radiotherapy.
Primary cardiac leiomyosarcomas are rare, with a high incidence of local recurrence. Herein, we report the case of a 35-year-old woman who was admitted with right ventricular failure and suspected pulmonary embolism. Upon echocardiography, we detected a mass in the pulmonary trunk that involved the pulmonary valve and led to valvular stenosis. The optimal protocol for treating these tumors is as yet unclear. Complete resection can rarely be achieved. However, palliative surgery is usually undertaken because many patients present with mechanical obstruction, such as significant pulmonary stenosis.
A 45-year-old man with nonischemic cardiomyopathy and end-stage renal disease had lived uneventfully with a cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator (CRT-D) for 5 years. Less than a month before presenting at our institution, he had undergone stenting of his partially occluded subclavian vein, to relieve stenosis of the ipsilateral arteriovenous fistula that was used for his hemodialysis. The CRT-D subsequently discharged. Device interrogation revealed that electrical noise originating from leads damaged by the stent had caused the inappropriate shock and intermittent electrical discharges thereafter. The patient was highly traumatized by these events and insisted upon device removal, which deprived him of a potentially life-saving intervention. He later had a cardiac arrest that resulted in sustained profound hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy with minimal neurologic recovery: his family placed him in a long-term care facility on ventilator support, with a tracheostomy and feeding tube. This situation might have been avoided through collaboration between the interventional radiologist and the electrophysiologist. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a patient with nonischemic cardiomyopathy and end-stage renal disease who presented with inappropriate defibrillator discharge caused by lead damage secondary to stenting across the leads.
Q fever is a zoonotic disease with a reservoir in mammals, birds, and ticks. Acute cases in human beings can be asymptomatic, or they can present with a flu-like illness, pneumonia, or hepatitis. Approximately 5% of cases progress to chronic Q fever. Endocarditis, the most typical manifestation of chronic Q fever, is usually associated with small vegetations that occur in patients who have had prior valvular damage or who are immunocompromised. We present what we think is the first reported case of superior mesenteric artery embolism from Q fever endocarditis of the aortic valve, in a 39-year-old woman who needed surgical embolectomy and subsequent aortic valve replacement.
We present the case of a 50-year-old man who had a dual-chamber pacemaker that was implanted because of symptomatic bradycardia. The pacemaker was programmed in a DDD mode, with a lower rate of 70 beats/min; upper rate, 120 beats/min; paced atrioventricular (AV) delay, 180 ms; sensed AV delay, 150 ms; and V-blanking period, 200 ms. A) Ventricular undersensing with inappropriate ventricular pacing B) Ventricular tracking of a retrograde P wave from the premature ventricular contraction C) VentricularHow would you explain the pacing stimulus observed on the T wave in the 11th complex (Fig. 1)?
In 1973, a 10-year-old boy with rheumatic mitral stenosis underwent mitral valve replacement with use of a Starr-Edwards caged-ball valve (SECBV) model 6120. In March 2013, the adult patient presented with severe aortic stenosis and underwent mechanical aortic valve replacement. In June 2014, at age 51 years, he was admitted to our hospital with atrial fibrillation. A transthoracic echocardiogram showed an aortic valve prosthesis with mild regurgitation, left atrial enlargement to dimensions of 4.5 × 5 cm, a left ventricular ejection fraction of 0.52, and—of note—a well-functioning SECBV without regurgitation, a peak mitral velocity of 2.14 m/s, a moderate early
A 75-year-old woman with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation was referred for cardioversion. She was a smoker and had hypertension that she controlled with medications. Her renal function, electrolyte levels (including potassium and magnesium), and thyroid-stimulating hormone levels were within normal limits. The results of a recent transthoracic echocardiogram, which she had undergone as an outpatient, were within normal limits. We started her on a regimen of anticoagulation with dabigatran and performed transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), with plans for electrical cardioversion if no left atrial appendage (LAA) thrombus was found. The TEE showed no evidence of an LAA thombus, but there was
A 63-year-old woman who presented with a 2-week history of fever and fatigue was found to have persistent group B β-hemolytic streptococcal bacteremia. A transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) showed a mobile mass adhering to the mitral valve (MV). Two- and 3-dimensional TEE revealed a large echodense structure in the left atrium, adhering to the intra-atrial septum and posterior MV leaflet, along with a retrocardiac mass (Fig. 1). The patient was referred for cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. Steady-state free-precession images with T1 weighting showed a thickened posterior MV leaflet with vegetation, severe mitral regurgitation, and a myocardial mass involving the
To the Editor: Mangelli and colleagues1 report the life-saving effectiveness of methylene blue (MB) in treating vasoplegic syndrome in a 75-year-old man, after on-pump cardiac surgery. They present a simplified nitric oxide (NO) pathway that shows methylene blue as a nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor. In regard to the therapeutic principles for endothelial vasoplegic dysfunction treatment associated with heart surgery, the first and most important concept concerns restrictions on the use of nonspecific inhibitors of NO synthesis (L - NMMA, L - NAME). This approach is prone to controversy, because it involves ethical issues related to the use
