To compare the diagnostic yields of transesophageal and transthoracic echocardiography in the detection of potential cardiac sources of embolism, 63 patients (mean +/- SD age 63 +/- 15 [range 18-87] years) with transient ischemic attacks or stroke underwent both procedures. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed a potential cardiac source of embolism in 14% (nine) of the patients, all of whom ...

nique (Table I). The differences of 2 mm Hg and 1 mm Hg in peak and mean gradients, respectively, were not considered to be of clinical significance. Subsequent cardiac catheterization performed 48 hours later confirmed a mean mitral prosthetic diastolic gradient of 13 mm Hg. The calculated mitral valve area was 0.7 cm2. The excised mitral valve prosthesis revealed extensively thickened and cal...

INTRODUCTION Fibrin glue is used commonly during cardiac surgery but can behave as an intracardiac abnormal foreign body following surgery. There have been few such cases reported, and they were typically noticed only because of the resulting catastrophic cardiac conditions, such as valvular malfunction. We report a case where, for the first time, transesophageal echocardiography was used to de...

OBJECTIVES We defined the effects of the operative (OP) state and phenylephrine challenge on the assessment of mitral regurgitation (MR) severity. METHODS In all, 57 patients underwent transesophageal echocardiographic assessment of MR severity pre-OP (PREOP) and intra-OP. MR severity was assessed PREOP under conscious sedation and intra-OP with general anesthesia, before and after hemodynami...

Anesth Analg 2002; 94: 1384±8 3 Leech G. The BSE: from club to professional society. British Society of Echocardiography Newsletter, July 2003; 45: 8 4 Rimington H. Behind the Scenes. British Society of Echocardiography Newsletter, July 2003; 45: 10 5 Thys DM. Clinical competence in Echocardiography. Anesth Analg 2003; 97: 313±22 6 Pearlman AS, Gardin JM, Martin RP, et al. Guidelines for physic...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Acute paraplegia must be investigated promptly to exclude reversible causes. In this report we illustrate the usefulness of transesophageal echocardiography in identifying the vascular etiologies of acute paraplegia. CASE DESCRIPTIONS Two patients presented with acute paraplegia, one spontaneously and the other after removal of an intra-aortic balloon pump catheter. Thr...

Surface echocardiographic imaging of small children is routinely successful in defining anatomical details and Doppler flow patterns with even the most complex congenital cardiac malformations. However, in larger children or adults, imaging is frequently limited. A recent expansion of the role of echocardiography is intraoperative epicardial imaging. Epicardial and postoperative imaging, how...

Atrial myxoma is a benign tumor of the heart that occurs primarily in the left atrium. Floating or large left atrial myxomas frequently cause functional mitral stenosis, may also affect mitral valve structure and flow, and lead to mitral regurgitation. Systemic embolization occurs in around 30% of cases either from tumor fragmentation or complete tumor detachment hence it should be removed as s...

The aim of this study was to assess whether intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography with nitroglycerin infusion could identify viable myocardium. Twenty-eight patients with coronary artery disease with regional dysfunction underwent transesophageal echocardiography during bypass surgery. A transgastric left ventricular cross-sectional image at the midpapillary level was obtained and div...

INTRODUCTION As a common morphological change of aging heart, sigmoid ventricular septum is frequently found during routine preoperative evaluation, but often disregarded because of its little clinical importance. However, in this report, we describe a 70-year old patient with sigmoid ventricular septum who developed severe hemodynamic deterioration during liver transplantation because of its u...