An 84-year-old woman with hypertension presented to our medical center with dyspnea and lower extremity edema. Electrocardiography demonstrated atrial fibrillation with a rapid ventricular response. Transthoracic echocardiography color Doppler showed abnormal flow in the region of the interatrial septum (Fig. 1A). Transesophageal echocardiography demonstrated a defect adjacent to the interatria...

Ebstein anomaly (EA) is a rare congenital malformation of the tricuspid valve (TV), often associated with other cardiac malformations, especially atrial septal defect/patent foramen ovale (PFO) which is present in 80-90% of patients and predisposes to paradoxical embolization. We describe the case of a 17-year-old female, who presented with worsening exertional dyspnea, fatigue and pedal edema ...

The achievement of adequate and prompt myocardial reperfusion in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is the most important determinant of recovery of ventricular function at follow-up. This explains the great attention given to the so-called no-reflow phenomenon, which is associated with extensive myocardial damage and a high prevalence of future cardiac events after AMI. The no-reflow phenomenon...

Hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS) and portopulmonary hypertension (PPHTN) are complications of portal hypertension and cirrhosis. Their pathophysiological mechanisms clearly differ. HPS is characterized by a defect in arterial oxygenation induced by pulmonary vascular dilatation. In contrast, PPHTN is predominantly due to excessive pulmonary vasoconstriction and vascular remodeling, but is rarely ...

background: standard methods for the measurement of myocardial perfusion are invasive and require cardiac catheterization or the use of radioisotope dyes. the coronary sinus blood flow (csbf) is an appropriate criterion for the efficacy of myocardial perfusion. this study sought to measure csbf via transthoracic echocardiography (tte) in patients with acute myocardial infarction (ami) and to as...