Texas Heart Institute journal
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Comment Letter
House-staff working hours and continuity of patient care.
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Case Reports
Right ventricular thrombus with Behçet's syndrome: successful treatment with warfarin and immunosuppressive agents.
Behçet's syndrome is a chronic multisystem disease that presents with recurrent oral and genital ulceration and recurrent uveitis. Cardiac involvement is an extremely rare manifestation of this disorder. ⋯ Transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography revealed a right ventricular thrombus. After 1 month of treatment with warfarin, cyclophosphamide, and corticosteroid, the intracardiac thrombus resolved.
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As a complication of myocardial ischemia, severe elongation of the anterior papillary muscle with resultant mitral valve insufficiency is a rare clinical finding. Using echocardiography, we accurately diagnosed this condition in a 75-year-old man. The patient underwent successful plication of the elongated anterior papillary muscle and the implantation of polytetrafluoroethylene neochordae tendineae.
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Takotsubo cardiomyopathy mimics acute coronary syndrome and is accompanied by reversible left ventricular apical ballooning in the absence of angiographically significant coronary artery stenosis. In Japanese, "takotsubo" means "fishing pot for trapping octopus," and the left ventricle of a patient diagnosed with this condition resembles that shape. Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, which is transient and typically precipitated by acute emotional stress, is also known as "stress cardiomyopathy" or "broken-heart syndrome."Herein, we describe the clinical angiographic characteristics of 4 patients who exhibited this syndrome, and we review the existing literature and propose reasons to conduct prospective studies.