Texas Heart Institute journal最新文献

A 47-year-old patient was experiencing dyspnea and fatigue concerning for right ventricular hypertension and new heart failure. Because of the risks associated with catheter entrapment, prosthetic valve leaflet damage, and valve thrombosis associated with crossing a mechanical valve, a novel technique was used for diagnostic left and right heart catheterization in a patient with mechanical tricuspid valve replacement and tortuous pulmonary arteries. Using a percutaneous subxiphoid approach to avoid traversing the mechanical valve without discontinuing anticoagulation, a Volcano fractional flow reserve pressure wire (Philips Volcano) was advanced for distal measurements of pressures and saturations.

Background: The occurrence of atrial fibrillation, circadian fluctuation in blood pressure, and oxygen desaturation at night is likely associated with the pathophysiology of wake-up stroke. Whether patients who experience wake-up strokes are candidates for thrombolysis treatment is a serious dilemma. The aim is to investigate the association between risk factors and wake-up stroke and to determine variations that are associated with the pathophysiology of wake-up stroke.

Methods: Five major electronic databases were searched using a fitted search strategy to identify relevant studies. Odds ratios with 95% CIs were used to calculate estimates, and the Quality Assessment for Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 tool was used to conduct the assessment quality.

Results: A total of 29 studies were included in this meta-analysis. Hypertension is not associated with wake-up stroke (odds ratio, 1.14 [95% CI, 0.94-1.37]; P = .18). Atrial fibrillation is an independent risk factor to wake-up stroke, with a statistically significant difference (odds ratio, 1.28 [95% CI, 1.06-1.55]; P = .01). Subgroup analysis showed a different result in patients with sleep-disordered breathing, although no significant difference was assessed.

Conclusion: This study revealed that atrial fibrillation is an independent risk factor for wake-up stroke and that patients with atrial fibrillation who also experience sleep-disordered breathing tend to have fewer wake-up strokes.

Eosinophilic myocarditis is a rare form of myocarditis characterized by eosinophilic infiltration and usually associated with peripheral hypereosinophilia. The clinical spectrum of eosinophilic myocarditis ranges widely, from mildly symptomatic to fulminant disease. When patients have fulminant eosinophilic myocarditis, high-dose corticosteroids can lead to dramatic improvement and peripheral eosinophil counts are used as an indicator of response to treatment. However, in some patients, peripheral eosinophilia is absent at initial presentation; reaching a diagnosis and determining treatment response can be challenging in this situation. This report describes a patient with fulminant eosinophilic myocarditis who initially presented with a normal peripheral eosinophil count, was diagnosed through an early endomyocardial biopsy, and was successfully treated with corticosteroids. Endomyocardial biopsy should be performed to confirm the presence of myocardial eosinophilic infiltration, especially for patients who present with fulminant myocarditis, even when peripheral eosinophilia is absent.

Background: Pericardial effusion (PE) is a commonly encountered condition in clinical practice, but its etiology can be difficult to identify, with many cases remaining classified as idiopathic. This study aimed to investigate whether an association exists between asthma and idiopathic PE (IPE).

Methods: Patients who had been diagnosed with PE in the authors' outpatient cardiology clinics between March 2015 and November 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. The study population was divided into 2 groups-non-IPE (NIPE) and IPE-based on whether a cause had been identified. Demographic, laboratory, and clinical data for the 2 groups were examined statistically.

Results: A total of 714 patients were enrolled in the study after exclusion of 40 cases. Of these 714 patients, 558 were allocated to the NIPE group and 156 to the IPE group (NIPE group median [IQR] age, 50 [41-58] years vs IPE group median [IQR] age, 47 [39-56] years; P = .03). Asthma was significantly more prevalent among patients in the IPE group than among those in the NIPE group (n = 54 [34.6%] vs n = 82 [14.7%]; P < .001). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, asthma (odds ratio, 2.67 [95% CI, 1.53-4.67]; P = .001) was found to be an independent predictor of IPE. In the IPE group, patients with asthma had either mild or moderate PE, with the right atrium being the most common location in these patients.

Conclusion: Asthma was an independent predictor of mild to moderate IPE. The right atrium was the most frequently encountered location for PE in patients with asthma.