CONGENITAL cardiac defects involving the venous return to the heart and those affecting the partitioning of the atria should probably be considered as a group. The most commonly encountered and simplest to correct are defects in the interatrial septum of the ostium secundum type. Due to the lower resistance to emptying into the right ventricle from the two communicating atria, the shunt in such...

Fistulization between the aorta and the right atrium is a rare complication of ascending aortic dissection. Because of the typical haemodynamic unstability, the diagnosis is often made by bedside or intraoperative transoesophageal echocardiography. The treatment is surgical, but with very high mortality. We describe a case of type A aortic dissection complicated with shock and fistulization int...

We describe a simple method for left atrial pressure (LAP) monitoring from the right to the left atrium (LA) by a central line catheter. The anesthesiologist cannulates vena jugularis interna and inserts two central line catheters. One catheter is placed in the vena cava superior and the second single-lumen catheter is placed in the right atrium. The surgeon positions a one-line catheter from t...

BACKGROUND Primary cardiac neoplasms occur rarely and most of them are benign. Malignant tumors including angiosarcoma are extremely rare and have a non specific clinical presentation and a poor prognosis. CASE PRESENTATION We present a case of a young male who was transferred to our hospital because of shock and multiple organ failure after a complicated pericardial biopsy. During the previo...

hemodynamics to detect subclinical myocardial disease in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Am J Cardiol 2011;107:615–21. 22. Boudina S, Sena S, O’Neil BT, Tathireddy P, Young ME, Abel ED. Reduced mitochondrial oxidative capacity and increased mitochondrial uncoupling impair myocardial energetics in obesity. Circulation 2005;112:2686–95. 23. How OJ, Aasum E, Severson DL, Chan WY, Essop MF, Larsen TS. In...

A 73-year old man underwent transthoracic and transoesophageal echocardiography and computed tomography, which revealed what appeared to be an asymptomatic primary mobile tumour located in the right atrium. During surgery, the mass was found to be associated with the right atrial septum and was subsequently resected. Histopathology of the mass revealed a cardiac varix with phleboliths. The pati...

Atrial arrhythmia, which includes atrial fibrillation (AF) and atrial flutter (AFL), is common in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), who often have increased sympathetic nerve activity. Here, we tested the hypothesis that autonomic nerves play important roles in vulnerability to AF/AFL in PAH. The atrial effective refractory period and AF/AFL inducibility at baseline and after...