European heart journal
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European heart journal · Jun 1993
Case ReportsDiagnosis of mitral valve myxoma by transesophageal echocardiography.
Mitral valve myxomas are rare. We report a patient with a mitral myxoma arising from the posterior mitral leaflet in whom transthoracic echocardiography revealed equivocal findings. However, transoesophageal echocardiography provided accurate relevant anatomical information including the size, morphological characteristics, and tumour attachment point.
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European heart journal · Jun 1993
Comparative StudyMeasurement of cardiac output with the Quantascope, a novel Doppler device: comparison with thermodilution.
The Quantascope is a novel non-imaging echo-Doppler device designed to measure cardiac output. We have compared this device with thermodilution. ⋯ The cardiac output derived by the Doppler technique did not correlate with that derived by thermodilution (r = 0.36, P = NS). Compared with the currently accepted reference technique of thermodilution, we found measurement of cardiac output by the Quantascope to be inaccurate: this contradicts previous reports.
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European heart journal · Jun 1993
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialThe incidence and mechanism of hypotension following thrombolytic therapy for acute myocardial infarction with streptokinase-containing agents--lack of relationship to pretreatment streptokinase resistance.
The incidence, amplitude, mechanism and relationship to prior exposure to streptococcal antigen of blood pressure changes to streptokinase-containing thrombolytic agents were investigated in 125 patients treated with either 1.5 x 10(6) IU streptokinase over 60 min or 30 U anistreplase over 5 min, within 6 h of onset of acute myocardial infarction. Twenty-one of 52 patients with anterior and 34 of 73 with inferior myocardial infarction had a hypotensive response. There were no significant differences in the incidence, duration or amplitude of hypotension between the two treatment groups. ⋯ Hypotension was not related to pretreatment streptokinase resistance titre, or anti-SK IgG concentration, to changes in plasma fibrinogen, B-beta 15-42 peptide, D-dimer--as indices of thrombin activation and fibrin (-ogen) breakdown--to plasma viscosity. The blood pressure changes following treatment with streptokinase-containing thrombolytic agents in acute myocardial infarction are frequent but well tolerated. The mechanism of hypotension remains unclear, but is not related to prior exposure to streptococcal antigen.