Archives des maladies du coeur et des vaisseaux
-
Arch Mal Coeur Vaiss · Mar 1981
Case Reports[Myxomas of the right atrium. Apropos of 3 cases. Review of the literature].
The authors report 3 cases of right atrial myxoma and review 88 other cases in the literature managed by surgery. The first personal case, in a 74 year old patient, illustrate the dramatic consequences of tumour engagement in the tricuspid orifice, in this instance cardiac arrest during catheterisation justifying emergency surgery. The second case exemplifies the diagnostic value of echocardiography: the correction of an erroneous diagnosis of pericarditis. ⋯ Angiography serves only to confirm these appearances. Surgery is the treatment of choice, and preferably with the shortest possible delay. It offers definitive cure at a minimal risk to the patient.
-
The reported incidence of malignant pheochromocytoma varies from series to series. In this series 4 cases (7.2 p. 100) were observed out of a total of 55. In two cases the tumour progressed rapidly but in the other two cases, metastases were detected 3 to 12 years after the apparent cure of a histologically benign pheochromocytoma. ⋯ The diagnosis was only made from the clinical and radiological detection of metastases (2 hepatic, 2 bone). There is no satisfactory treatment and various therapeutic methods have to be used in succession; surgery for a single metastasis, radiotherapy and antiadrenergic agents to combat clinical manifestations. The natural history of this tumour is relatively long.
-
Arch Mal Coeur Vaiss · Sep 1979
Case Reports[Painless ST elevation with syncope. Diagnosis by continuous electrocardiography].
The aetiology of syncope in a 53 year old man was discovered on continuous ambulatory electrocardiography. A ventricular arrhythmia associated with ST elevation was recorded. It proved resistant to medical therapy and a double aorto-coronary bypass graft was performed. Post-operative Holter monitoring showed surgery to have been effective.
-
Arch Mal Coeur Vaiss · Apr 1979
[Study of the long-term psychological consequences of heart valve prostheses].
The present follow-up period of cardiac surgery allows assessment of the long-term consequences of valvular prostheses, the short-term consequences having already been the object of many studies. 50 patients of both sexes, operated on for aortic or mitral valve disease between 1973 and 1974 were interviewed to assess their degree of psychological adaptation with regard to their cardiac status and the principal factors of adaptation. The position of the prosthetic valve (aortic or mitral) seemed to be of little importance and the prognosis depended rather on sex, age at operation, previous personality, intelligence quotient, postoperative psychiatric complications and the interval between diagnosis of the disease and operation.