Five cases of aortic incompetence and nodular seropositive rheumatoid arthritis are presented. Four cases underwent aortic valve replacement. Two of these had granulomatous involvement of the aortic cusps similar to subcutaneous rheumatoid nodules, and another showed a nonspecific fibrosis. One case had definite coincidental rheumatic aortic and mitral heart disease. Two patients had undergone ...

A 70-year-old man with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation was referred for pulmonary vein isolation. Past medical history included ischemic heart disease and a right hemicolectomy for Duke’s C carcinoma 10 years previously. Presenting ECG showed sinus rhythm with a normal axis and evidence of left atrial enlargement (Figure 1). Preoperative echocardiography demonstrated normal left ventricular stru...

BACKGROUND Whipple's disease is a rare, often multisystemic chronic infectious disease caused by the rod-shaped bacterium Tropheryma whipplei. Very rarely the heart is involved in the process of the disease, leading to culture-negative infective endocarditis. Up to 20 % of all infective endocarditis are blood culture-negative and therefore a diagnostic challenge. We present two unusual cases of...

Pericarditis-Robinsonz and Brigden BRITSH 275 ciated with the post-infarction syndrome and post-cardiotomy syndrome. The problems of differential diagnosis are discussed. Cardiac tamponade was the most serious complication ; but this was uncommon and was rapidly relieved by aspiration of peri-cardial fluid. No patients required pericardectomy, possibly because corticosteroids brought rapid reso...

SUMMARY A patient is described with constrictive pericarditis after insertion of an endocardial pacemaker. As far as we know this complication has not been reported previously. Permanent endocardial pacemakers are now commonly implanted and a number of complications have been described.1 Constrictive pericarditis has been reported as a complication of epicardial pacemakers2; this has never been...

A 4-year-old male castrated English Mastiff weighing 72 kg (158 lb) was evaluated for acute dyspnea after a 1-week history of restlessness, episodes of increased respiratory effort, and inappetance. The dog was otherwise healthy and received seasonal heartworm preventative medication and routine vaccinations. On initial examination, the dog was bright, alert, responsive, and had a body conditio...