The Canadian journal of cardiology
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Owing to the COVID-19 outbreak in Lombardy, Italy) there is an urgent need to manage cardiovascular emergencies, including acute coronary syndrome (ACS), with appropriate standards of care and dedicated preventive measures and pathways against the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. For this reason, the Government of Lombardy decided to centralize the treatment of ACS patients in a limited number of centers, including our university cardiology institute, which in the past 4 weeks became a cardiovascular emergency referral center in a regional hub-and-spoke system. ⋯ We present here the protocol dedicated to ACS patients adopted in our center since March 13, 2020, and our initial experience in the management of ACS patients during the first 4 weeks of its use. Certainly, the protocol has room for further improvement as everyone's experience grows, but we hope that it could be a starting point, adaptable to different realities and local resources.
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A bronchogenic cyst in the left atrium is rare. We report the case of a 17-year-old male patient who was admitted to the emergency department because of severe chest pain and dyspnea. ⋯ The resultant atrial dome defect was reconstructed with a bovine pericardial patch. Pathologic investigation revealed that the tumour was a bronchogenic benign cyst.