A one day old baby who presented with cyanosis was later shown to have an isolated persistent left superior vena cava draining into the left atrium with hypoplastic right superior vena cava. This extremely rare anomaly was diagnosed by cardiac catheterisation at one week. Surgical correction at two weeks, by anastomosis of the innominate vein to the right atrium and by ligation of the left supe...

During a full cardiac cycle, the left atrium successively behaves as a reservoir, a conduit and a pump. This complex behavior makes it unrealistic to apply the time-varying elastance theory to characterize the left atrium, first, because this theory has known limitations, and second, because it is still uncertain whether the load independence hypothesis holds. In this study, we aim to bypass th...

Wedged catheter pressures (PC) were compared with those in the aorta, left atrium, and pulmonary artery before and after production of mitral stenosis, insufficiency, and pulmonary embolism. In general it was found that "PC" pressures follow closely changes in left atrial pressures even when pulmonary artery pressure changes in an opposite direction (for example, pulmonary embolism). However, p...

Echographic dimensions of the aortic root and left atrium were compared in 170 patients in order to assess dilation of the left atrium with reference to the relatively nondistensible fibrous aortic root. In 50 patients without cause for left atrial or aortic enlargement, the ratio of left atrial/aortic root dimension was 0. 87-1.11. In 80 patients with known cause for left atrial enlargement, t...

Raghib syndrome is an extremely rare congenital heart defect characterized by persistent left superior vena cava (LSVC) draining into the left atrium and absence of the coronary sinus. Although few cases have been reported in the literature, there are a number of techniques to redirect the LSVC flow to the right atrium. These procedures include surgery to establish intracardiac flow using atria...