Unruptured congenital aneurysm of the sinus of Valsalva in an African population: a six-year experience at an echocardiography laboratory.

Sinus of Valsalva aneurysms (SVA) are considered rare congenital anomalies. Apart from a few reported cases of SVA in African patients, there is little information on the clinical presentation of this entity in Africans. We describe the clinical and echocardiographic features of four consecutive African patients in whom the diagnosis of SVA was established over the last six years at the echocardiography laboratory of our institution. In this report we compare the clinical and echocardiographic features in our patients with those of others published in the literature.

Isolated unguarded tricuspid valve: a rare cause of syncope and new-onset right cardiac failure in adult.

An unguarded tricuspid valve is a rare congenital anomaly. We describe the clinical and echocardiographic features of two young adult African patients with syncope, new-onset right cardiac failure, in whom the diagnosis of isolated unguarded tricuspid valve was established. One of the patients underwent tricuspid annuloplasty with good surgical results.