Successful transcatheter mitral valve replacement in a patient with bioprosthetic valvular degeneration and severe regurgitation.

The implantation of aortic transcatheter heart valves has been successfully performed throughout the world in hundreds of patients with severe dysfunction of a degenerated mitral bioprosthesis or those at high surgical risk for re-operation. The transseptal approach may be more technically challenging, but is a less invasive procedure and may have a lower mortality rate compared with a transapical approach, and also offers a quick patient recovery. This report is a description of a rare case in Turkey: a successful transseptal mitral valve replacement in a case of a failed bioprosthetic valve. This case illustrates the feasibility and safety of percutaneous valve-in-valve implantation to treat a degenerated bioprosthesis.

Acute myocarditis or the kounis syndrome: role of cardiac MRI and speckle-tracking echocardiography in diagnosis.

INTRODUCTION: The Kounis syndrome and acute myocarditis are two distinct clinical entities, which could share nearly the same symptomatology as well as ECG (electrocardiography) and laboratory findings. CASE PRESENTATION: First case was a 39-year-old male presented with acute chest pain and inferolateral ST elevation on ECG. The second case was a 29-year-old male presented with chest pain and diffuses ST elevation. Diagnosis of acute myocarditis was achieved by demonstrating subepicardial contrast enhancement as well as atypical involvement in both of our clinical cases. CONCLUSIONS: We reported two cases in which specific imaging modalities (cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and speckle-tracking echocardiography) were used when the signs and symptoms were indistinguishable.