Texas Heart Institute journal
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Case Reports
Inferior vena cava filter migration to the right ventricle causing nonsustained ventricular tachycardia.
Inferior vena cava filters are commonly used to prevent pulmonary embolism in patients who manifest deep vein thrombosis and recurrent pulmonary embolism despite anticoagulation, or in patients with contraindications to anticoagulation. We report the case of a 69-year-old man with a structurally normal heart who experienced migration of an inferior vena cava filter to the right ventricle, which caused the abrupt onset of recurrent episodes of nonsustained ventricular tachycardia unresponsive to intravenous antiarrhythmic medication. ⋯ We anticipate that the incidence of inferior vena cava filter migration might increase in the future because of recent changes in device construction. The sudden appearance of nonsustained ventricular tachycardia in a patient with an inferior vena cava filter might indicate the occurrence of this potentially life-threatening sequela and should lead to emergent cardiac imaging.
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Case Reports
Inverted Takotsubo cardiomyopathy and the fundamental diagnostic role of echocardiography.
Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is characterized by the development of transient focal wall-motion abnormalities that involve the apical and midventricular segments, in the absence of obstructive coronary artery disease. A variant, inverted takotsubo cardiomyopathy, was described in 2010. We report 3 cases in which each patient's transthoracic echocardiogram revealed the characteristic basal and midventricular segmental akinesis of this variant. This pattern is not associated with coronary artery distribution, and it therefore can be differentiated from coronary artery disease with the use of echocardiography, by evaluating the distribution and temporal changes of akinetic areas.