Chest
-
A 26-year-old man developed coccidioidomycosis which resulted in myocarditis associated with congestive heart failure. A pericardial effusion developed and progressed to constrictive pericarditis. A pericardiectomy was performed and revealed that the pericarditis was due to Coccidioides immitis. The patient was subsequently treated with amphotericin B and showed marked improvement.
-
Case Reports
Right coronary artery dissection. A complication of cardiac catheterization and coronary angiography.
Four patients are described in whom right coronary artery dissection occurred during retrograde catheterization of the left ventricle or coronary arteries. In two patients, acute myocardial infarction occurred. The possible causes, radiographic features, and clinical implications of this infrequent complication are discussed.
-
A questionnaire was sent to 1,041 owners of fiberoptic bronchoscopes requesting data about complications of bronchoscopic examination; 323 (31 percent) of the questionnaires were returned. From approximately 48,000 procedures, ten deaths were reported and are described. Information about two additional deaths not obtained from data on the questionnaires is also included. ⋯ Two were patients who previously had slowly hemorrhaging tumors that hemorrhaged massively following, respectively, forceps biopsy and saline lavage. Four brushes broke off in bronchi. Ten cardiac arrests and 41 life-threatening reactions to anesthesia also occurred.