Cardiac shortness of breath

Intracardiac leiomyomatosis (ICLM) is a rare condition in which the benign tumor extends into the right heart chambers through inferior vena cava. The best surgical approach still remains unclear.We present a retrospective cohort of 36 patients diagnosed with ICLM in Peking Union Medical College Hospital between 2002 and 2016.The mean patient age was 44.5 (range 25-55) years. The clinical manifestations were various, including shortness of breath, chest tightness, edema of the lower extremities, palpitations, syncope, etc...

OBJECTIVE: Identify predictors of cardiogenic etiology among Emergency Department (ED) patients with hypotension, and use these predictors to create a clinical tool to discern cardiogenic etiology of hypotension. METHODS: This secondary analysis evaluated a prospective cohort of consecutive patients with hypotension in an urban, academic, tertiary care ED from November 2012 to September 2013. We included adults with hypotension, defined as a new vasopressor requirement, systolic blood pressure (SBP) < 90 mmHg after at least 1L of crystalloid or 2 units packed red blood cells, or SBP < 90 mmHg and fluids withheld due to concern for fluid overload...

Primary cardiac sarcomas are rare malignant tumours and among them, leiomyosarcoma is extremely rare. They are especially rare in a young age group. We present a case of a 22-year-old male patient with primary leiomyosarcoma of the left atrium involving the pulmonary veins who presented with haemoptysis and shortness of breath. He underwent surgical excision of the tumour along with mitral valve replacement followed by adjuvant chemotherapy. No recurrence was reported on his second 6 monthly follow-ups.

BACKGROUND: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a fatal neuromuscular disorder characterized by progressive death of the upper and lower motor neurons in the central nervous system. Patients with this disease die mostly as a result of respiratory failure; however, owing to prolonged survival through assisted ventilation, cardiovascular causes are increasingly responsible for mortality. We report what is to the best of our knowledge the first case of type 2 Brugada syndrome causing ventricular tachyarrhythmia and cardiac arrest in a patient with upper limb onset amyotrophic lateral sclerosis...

Congenital coronary artery fistula is an uncommon anomaly. Transcatheter coil embolization or Amplatzer vascular plug device closure of fistula is often done in symptomatic patients with safe accessibility to the feeding coronary artery. Embolization of Amplatzer vascular plug device is rare. We report an 11-year-old male child who presented to us with increasing shortness of breath for 7 years. He had a history of Amplatzer vascular plug device closure of right coronary-cameral fistula 8 years back. Echocardiography demonstrated a dilated aneurysmal right coronary artery with turbulent jet entering into the right ventricle (RV) and device embolized into the left pulmonary artery (LPA)...

Systemic sclerosis is a connective tissue disorder that frequently involves the heart. All cardiac structures can be involved but aortic valve involvement is rare. We report a case of an 83-year-old man with a history of systemic sclerosis presenting with shortness of breath. A transthoracic echocardiogram revealed severe aortic stenosis that could not be explained by other causes. These patients often pose challenges in management as they are not surgical candidates. Transaortic valvular implantation is a viable option for these patients...

Purulent pericarditis is uncommon among paediatric patients and cases caused by group A Streptococcus (GAS) are even rarer. We report a four-month-old female infant who was referred to the Royal Hospital, Muscat, Oman, in 2015 with pericardial effusion and cardiac tamponade. She had initially presented to a secondary hospital with a two-week history of fever, a runny nose and shortness of breath. Blood and pericardial fluid cultures confirmed GAS isolates. The infant was treated with a two-week course of antibiotics and made a complete recovery with no echocardiographical evidence of pericardial effusion at a two-month follow-up...

BACKGROUND: Reduced heart rate variability (HRV), a marker of autonomic system dysfunction, has been reported in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Yet, limited data exists on the reliability of HRV measurement in this population. Here we investigated the reliability of short-term HRV measurement performed during spontaneous breathing in patients with COPD. METHODS: Thirteen individuals (8 males) with moderate-to-severe COPD (FEV1 46±16% predicted; FEV1/FVC 49±13) underwent standard time and frequency domain HRV measurements derived from 5-minute electrocardiograms collected on two separate days using a SphygmoCor device...

Cardiac amyloidosis (CA) is relatively rare and frequently misdiagnosed. Other disorders presenting with increased left ventricular (LV) mass can mimic its diagnosis. This case illustrates unique findings of primary light chain (AL) amyloidosis in a patient with remarkable signs of CA. Here, we report a 49-year-old man with prior diagnosis of hypertrophy cardiomyopathy (HCM) based on an echocardiogram performed 1 year earlier that presented with 8 weeks of periorbital rash. He had numbness in the past 3 years...

BACKGROUND: Sexual activity is increasingly recognized as an important aspect of quality of life for many individuals with cardiovascular disease, although less is known about the factors contributing to sexual functioning in younger adults. OBJECTIVE: This study examined factors influencing sexual activity in individuals aged 40 to 59 years, comparing those reporting a cardiac condition with those without a cardiac condition, in a national population-based sample...

Chemotherapy-related cardiac toxicity is a rare but serious adverse event in patients with cancer. Thus far, no case of serious cardiac toxicity of pemetrexed has been reported. We describe the case of a patient with advanced lung cancer and cardiomyopathy due to pemetrexed. A 59-year-old woman visited our hospital, and we found abnormal findings on a chest radiograph. She was diagnosed as having stage IV lung adenocarcinoma. Chemotherapy with cisplatin and pemetrexed every 3 weeks was initiated. After four cycles of chemotherapy, maintenance chemotherapy with pemetrexed was administered every 3 weeks...

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate cardiopulmonary (CP) involvement in patients with Takayasu's arteritis (TAK) and assess the impact on disease outcomes. METHODS: A retrospective cohort of patients with newly diagnosed TAK from 1984 to 2009 was assembled. Demographics, baseline disease characteristics, relapse events, surgeries and mortality were abstracted from direct medical record review. Angiograms, advanced imaging and cardiac studies were reviewed for evidence of CP involvement...

Pulmonary alveolar microlithiasis (PAM) is an uncommon genetic disorder associated with alveolar cell injury. This injury is caused in most cases by inactivating mutations in SLC34A2 gene, which is responsible for the production of a sodium-dependent phosphate co-transporter. The dysfunction or deficiency of this transporter leads to the aggregation of local phosphate intra-alveolarly and formation of microliths. Most of the patients are asymptomatic at the time of the diagnosis but as the disease progress it leads to fatal respiratory or cardiac failure...

The clinical evaluation of patients with an anomalous aortic origin of a coronary artery (AAOCA), a congenital abnormality of the origin or course of a coronary artery that arises from the aorta, is challenging given its first presentation being sudden cardiac arrest in about half of the patients. Symptoms of chest pain, shortness of breath and syncope during exertion should be of concern in evaluating young athletes and nonathletes. The lack of abnormal signs on the physical exam and electrocardiogram further adds to the difficulty in establishing the diagnosis...

BACKGROUND: The effective management of pain in chronic pancreatitis (CP) remains a therapeutic challenge. Analgesic drugs, such as opioids, and the underlying pathology can impair gut function. The autonomic nervous system influences hormone secretion and gut motility. In healthy volunteers, electrical (using noninvasive transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation [t-VNS]) and physiological (using deep slow breathing [DSB]) modulation of parasympathetic tone results in pain attenuation and enhanced gut motility...

BACKGROUND: Metastatic cardiac tumors are far more common than primary tumors. Although the hematogenous spread of osteosarcoma is well known, the imaging findings of cardiovascular involvement by osteosarcoma are seldom reported and can be difficult to recognize. CASE PRESENTATION: A 21-year-old man of African descent presented to our center complaining of shortness of breath, awareness of heart beats, easy fatigability, swelling of lower limbs, and left-side chest discomfort for the past 6 months getting worse for the last 3 months prior to his third readmission...

BACKGROUND: Typical angina (TA) is defined as substernal chest pain precipitated by physical exertion or emotional stress and relieved with rest or nitroglycerin. Women and elderly patients are usually have atypical symptoms both at rest and during stress, often in the setting of nonobstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). HYPOTHESIS: To further understand this, we performed subgroup analysis comparing subjects who presented with TA vs nontypical angina (NTA) using baseline data of patients with nonobstructive CAD and coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) enrolled in a clinical trial...

We report a case of a 75-year-old male with history of lung adenocarcinoma who presented with shortness of breath and frequent episodes of cough-induced syncope. A large pericardial effusion was found on echocardiogram suggestive of cardiac tamponade. Pericardiocentesis was done which improved the dyspnea and eventually resolved the syncope. There are only two other cases reported in the literature with cough-induced syncope in the setting of pericardial effusion or cardiac tamponade. Our clinical vignette also highlights the importance of pulsus paradoxus identification in patients with cough induced syncope to rule out cardiac tamponade since this is the most sensitive physical finding for its diagnosis...

The cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) of children at 3.0 T presents a unique set of technical challenges because of their small cardiac anatomical structures, fast heart rates, and the limited ability to keep motionless and hold breathe, which could cause problems associated with field inhomogeneity and degrade the image quality. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of dual-source parallel radiofrequency (RF) transmission on the B1 homogeneity and image quality in children with CMR at 3.0 T. The study was approved by the institutional ethics committee and written informed consent was obtained...

BACKGROUND: High-flow nasal cannulae (HFNC) deliver high flows of blended humidified air and oxygen via wide-bore nasal cannulae and may be useful in providing respiratory support for adult patients experiencing acute respiratory failure in the intensive care unit (ICU). OBJECTIVES: We evaluated studies that included participants 16 years of age and older who were admitted to the ICU and required treatment with HFNC. We assessed the safety and efficacy of HFNC compared with comparator interventions in terms of treatment failure, mortality, adverse events, duration of respiratory support, hospital and ICU length of stay, respiratory effects, patient-reported outcomes, and costs of treatment...