Cardiology

An ECG displaying "shark fin"-like characteristics in V3-V6 was seen in a patient with recent history of intestinal ischemia. Can you predict the final diagnosis?

Do you know the symptoms of a double chambered right ventricle in a child? Discover how to recognise, diagnose, and treat such cases in your clinic with this insightful case report.

Primary cardiac angiosarcomas are very aggressive tumors that often present after metastatic spread. In this case, initial presentation with chest pain rapidly progressed to multiple solid tumors. 

A 17-year-old female presented with high fever, general fatigue, and dim eyesight. She had used colored contact lenses 3 weeks previously. Traumatic injury of the eye vessels led to systemic hematogenous infection and subsequent endocarditis. 

How should you react to an acute MI immediately after a craniotomy for tumor resection? Management of such patients requires carefully balancing the competing risks of myocardial ischemia and postoperative bleeding. 

18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging is a novel tool used in this case to successfully assess risk in a patient with an aortic intramural hematoma.

Assessing heart failure progression in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy is challenging due to the multisystem nature of the disease. This is the first use of an implantable pulmonary artery pressure monitor.

A patient with aspiration pneumonia-induced ARDS required  venovenous ECMO cannulation, but presented with multiple thrombi in the internal jugular veins which limited access. VV-ECMO was alternatively established using the right axillary vein as the access site.

Ischemia without obstructive coronary artery disease can be difficult to identify. In this case, the patient presented with recurrent syncope which was caused by coronary artery spasm microvascular dysfunction and effectively treated.

A mediastinal angiosarcoma presented mimicking signs of constrictive pericarditis, aortic dissection, and coronary artery disease. The correct diagnosis only was made measurement of hyaluronic acid concentration in the pleural fluid.

Takotsubo syndrome, commonly referred to as "broken heart syndrome," is a distinctive form of acute and reversible heart failure that usually affects young women. This case illustrates the typical presentation, including symptoms to watch out for.

Using 3D video-assisted minimal-invasive techniques to resect hypertrophic papillary muscles and mitral valve replacement in a patient with HOCM and heart failure proved successful.

A patient receiving arsenic trioxide for acute promyelocytic leukemia developed drug-induced acute pericarditis that was successfully treated with colchicine.

Supra aortic obstruction is rarely seen in children. This young person presented with rock-hard, irregular, gritty plaques in the ascending aorta, diagnosed and successfully treated as "coral reef aorta". 

Procedural stroke is a major complication of cardiac catheterization and endovascular procedures, and recognizing the signs is crucial. In this case, internuclear ophthalmoplegia caused blurred vision, diplopia, and dizziness on lateral gaze.

Genetic screening for risk of sudden cardiac death in a 15-year-old boy with relevant family history uncovered a high chance of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. An ICD was implanted, and shortly after it successfully treated a potentially fatal ventricular arrhythmia.

Hypertensive urgency and echolalia were the most striking symptoms of memantine overdose in an elderly man with mild dementia and hypertension. Early medication review with caregivers of people with dementia is key.

A 31-year-old woman taking oral contraceptives presented with repetitive ischemic strokes before a patent foramen ovale was detected and closed. The dual risk of an undiagnosed PFO and common use of oral contraceptives should be considering in young women presenting with stroke symptoms. 

Double myocardial rupture is an extreme but rare complication after acute myocardial infarction.  Despite the odds, this case reports a successful surgical repair and post-op rehabilitation.

A 68-year-old man underwent ascending aortic replacement and thoracic endovascular aortic repair. Four years later, he developed aortic regurgitation and decreased ejection fraction, with no signs of infection. It is often difficult to distinguish non-infectious inflammatory response from infection in peri-graft fluid collection.