Cardiac shortness of breath

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...

BACKGROUND: Autonomic dysfunction contributes to atrial fibrillation (AF). OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that polysomnogram (PSG)-based heart rate variability (HRV) autonomic function biomarkers are associated with incident AF and these associations are modified by measures of sleep disordered breathing (SDB). METHODS: 2350 participants of a multi-center prospective study (Outcomes of Sleep Disorders in Older Men Study) without baseline AF underwent sleep studies with incident adjudicated AF follow up (8...

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory disease which follows a relapsing and remitting course that can manifest in any organ system. While classic manifestations consist of arthralgia, myalgia, frank arthritis, a malar rash and renal failure to name a few, cardiac tamponade, however, is a far less common and far more dangerous presentation. We highlight the case of a 61year-old male with complaints of acute onset shortness of breath and generalized body aches associated with a fever and chills in the ER...

We report a 63-year-old female with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and prior pacemaker insertion for atrial fibrillation with symptomatic bradycardia, who was admitted with substernal chest pressure and diaphoresis. Her electrocardiogram revealed atrial fibrillation with demand ventricular pacing and her cardiac biomarkers were negative for acute coronary syndrome. Echocardiogram revealed normal left ventricular systolic function and normal aortic root diameter. Coronary angiography revealed 60-70% obtuse marginal lesion, otherwise mild disease...

Mulibrey nanism is a rare autosomal recessive syndrome caused by a mutation in the TRIM37 gene with severe growth retardation and multiple organ involvement. Early diagnosis is important because 50% of the patients develop congestive heart failure owing to constrictive pericarditis, and this condition plays a critical role in the final prognosis. A 37-year-old female patient presented with symptoms of dyspnea on exertion and shortness of breath. She had severe growth failure and craniofacial dysmorphic feature...

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BACKGROUND: The point of entry of a patient in emergency care is a symptom or a complaint. To evaluate subsequent processes in an emergency department until a diagnosis is made, this information has to be taken into account. OBJECTIVES: We report the introduction of coded presenting complaints into the electronic medical record system of an emergency department and describe the patients based on these data. METHODS: The CEDIS presenting complaint list was integrated into the emergency department information system of an emergency department (38,000 patients/year)...

Objective: To evaluate the effects of bag-valve breathing maneuvers combined with standard manual chest compression techniques on safety, hemodynamics and oxygenation in stable septic shock patients. Design: A parallel, assessor-blinded, randomized trial of two groups. A computer-generated list of random numbers was prepared by an independent researcher to allocate treatments. Setting: The Intensive Care Unit at Hospital São Lucas, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul...

BACKGROUND: Cerebral venous air embolism (CVAE) is a severe clinical condition related to unfavoured outcome in patients with neurological impairment. CVAE may occur secondary to arterial or venous interventions. A rare mechanism of CVAE is retrograde embolism that is characterized by gas flow in a direction opposite to that of the normal blood flow. CASE REPORT: A 69-year-old female was admitted to our hospital with shortness of breath and abdominal pain. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) revealed intramural gas in the bowel and free gas in the mesenteric veins and portal vein...

A 53-year-old Egyptian female with end stage renal disease, one month after start of hemodialysis via an internal jugular catheter, presented with fever and shortness of breath. She developed desquamating vesiculobullous lesions, widespread on her body. She was in profound septic shock and broad spectrum antibiotics were started with appropriate fluid replenishment. An echocardiogram revealed bulky leaflets of the mitral valve with a highly mobile vegetation about 2.3 cm long attached to the anterior leaflet...

BACKGROUND Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) induced lung disease has been described in only a few isolated reports. We report a case of fatal respiratory failure associated with MMF after kidney transplantation. CASE REPORT A 50-year-old Hispanic male with a history of end-stage renal disease secondary to hypertension underwent deceased donor kidney transplantation. His preoperative evaluations were normal except for a chest x-ray which showed bilateral interstitial opacities. Tacrolimus and MMF were started on the day of surgery...

A 55-year-old man with a history of erosive, seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and interstitial lung disease presented with shortness of breath. Echocardiography showed new-onset severe left ventricular (LV) dysfunction with an ejection fraction (EF) of 15% and moderately increased mean aortic valve gradient of 20 mmHg in a trileaflet aortic valve with severe sclero-calcific degeneration. Coronary angiography revealed no significant obstructive coronary disease. Invasive hemodynamic studies and dobutamine stress echocardiography were consistent with moderate aortic stenosis...