Transesophageal echo cardiography

Between March 1982 and June 1992, 17 patients (age: 21-76 years) were diagnosed with pseudoaneurysm of the thoracic aorta (PTA). Four PTAs developed post-trauma while 13 developed after aortic or cardiac surgery. Unusual presentations included: dyspnea, hoarseness, dysphagia, massive hemoptysis (2 degrees to aortobronchial fistula), massive hematemesis (2 degrees to aorto-esophageal fistula), superior vena cava syndrome, paralyzed right hemidiaphragm, and herald bleeding from the sternotomy. The interval between initial operation and recognition of PTA varied from three months to eight years while the four posttraumatic PTAs presented 5 to 26 years postinjury...

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to determine how frequently prosthetic valve strands are associated with prosthetic mitral and aortic valves, as detected by transesophageal echocardiography, and to assess their significance in relation to clinical cardioembolic events. BACKGROUND: Strands attached to prosthetic mitral valves are a recently described finding of uncertain clinical significance. There are no reports of strands attached to aortic valve prostheses, and data are limited concerning the relation of valvular strands to cardioembolic events...

The accuracy of noninvasive cardiac output (CO) measurement techniques, such as electrical bioimpedance (BIO), suprasternal continuous-wave Doppler (CWD), pulsed-wave Doppler (PWD), and transesophageal continuous-wave Doppler (TED) ultrasound has been variably judged in recent years. In addition, clinical comparisons are hampered by the fact that there is no generally accepted gold standard in CO measurement. After coronary artery bypass surgery in 25 patients, CO was simultaneously determined by invasive standard techniques (thermodilution [TD] and Fick methods) plus BIO, CWD, PWD, and TED...

A case of 59 year old woman with acute myocardial infarction is presented in whom chest X-ray film revealed double outlined aortic arch suggestive of dissection. Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) disclosed presence of two vascular canals in the place of thoracic aorta. Atypical dissection of thoracic aorta or a vascular anomaly were suspected because the image of dissection of intima was not characteristic and no connection between the two canals was found. Computed tomography ruled out presence of aortic aneurysm but the image of inferior vena cava was difficult for interpretation...

This study was undertaken to find which cardiac function indices as judged by transesophageal ECHO cardiography (TEE) would accurately predict the plasma ANP levels during PEEP. Fourteen patients who underwent orthopedic surgery were the subjects of the study. PEEP 10 cmH2O or 15 cmH2O was added with a PEEP valve during mechanical ventilation under general anesthesia. The cardiac function indices were measured using a 5 MHz TEE probe and plasma ANP levels were evaluated by radioimmunoassay. There were significant reductions in the left atrial diameter, cardiac output and pulmonary venous flow during PEEP, while A/R and CVP were significantly increased...

A 59-year-old woman was referred to our hospital by a local cardiologist, with unknown cause of congestive heart failure and respiratory failure. No significant heart murmur was heard and a cardioechogram from the anterior chest was insufficient for diagnosis. On the night of admission, cardio-respiratory shock was found, and Swan-Gantz catheter data showed severe pulmonary hypertension. Transesophageal echo-cardiography (TEE) revealed a left atrial tumor, with wide neck anchored onto the posterior wall of the left atrium, and which was floating into the left ventricle during the diastolic phase...