Pulsatile sterile abscess in the left breast following transapical transcatheter aortic valve implantation: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Over the last decade, transcatheter treatment of degenerative aortic valve stenosis has been established as an alternative to surgical aortic valve replacement. Late complications of transcatheter treatment of aortic stenosis (AS) are infrequent. CASE SUMMARY: We report an 87-year-old woman treated successfully with 23 mm Sapien 3 transapical transcatheter aortic valve implantation for severe AS. She presented 4 months later with a pulsatile mass in the left breast. After exclusion of other diagnoses, the mass was attributed to a sterile abscess communicating with the pericardial cavity due to post-operative chest infection and pleural effusion. Multimodality imaging helped to define the anatomy of the abscess and the mechanism of the pulsation. DISCUSSION: This is the first report of a pulsatile sterile abscess occurring as a complication of transapical aortic valve implantation. Multimodality imaging confirmed that the pulsation was due to extension of the abscess into the pericardial cavity, excluded direct communication with the left ventricle, and facilitated successful non-surgical management.

Mediastinal monophasic synovial sarcoma with pericardial extension causing hemodynamic instability.

A 46-year-old man presented with mass on chest x-ray along with a 6-month history of weight loss, dyspnea and cough. He was hypotensive and an echocardiogram showed large extra-cardiac mass compressing the right ventricular outflow tract resulting in features of cardiac tamponade. Chest computed tomography revealed a mediastinal mass invading the pericardium adjacent to right ventricular outflow tract. Biopsy of the mass confirmed primary monophasic synovial sarcoma. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy along with anti-inflammatories were given as surgery was too high risk due to the location of the tumour and pericardial involvement. Patient responded briefly to the treatment with improvement in hemodynamic parameters but over next weeks he became less responsive to treatment with increasing size. He died 2 months after treatment commenced.

Impact of call-to-balloon time on 30-day mortality in contemporary practice.

OBJECTIVE: Studies reporting an association between treatment delay and outcome for patients with ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) have generally not included patients treated by a primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) service that systematically delivers reperfusion therapy to all eligible patients. We set out to determine the association of call-to-balloon (CTB) time with 30-day mortality after PPCI in a contemporary series of patients treated within a national reperfusion service. METHODS: We analysed data on 16 907 consecutive patients with STEMI treated by PPCI in England and Wales in 2011 with CTB time of ≤6 hours. RESULTS: The median CTB and door-to-balloon times were 111 and 41 min, respectively, with 80.9% of patients treated within 150 min of the call for help. An out-of-hours call time (58.2% of patients) was associated with a 10 min increase in CTB time, whereas inter-hospital transfer for PPCI (18.5% of patients) was associated with a 49 min increase in CTB time. CTB time was independently associated with 30-day mortality (p<0.0001) with a HR of 1.95 (95% CI 1.54 to 2.47) for a CTB time of >180-240 min compared with ≤90 min. The relationship between CTB time and 30-day mortality was influenced by patient risk profile with a greater absolute impact of increasing CTB time on mortality in high-risk patients. CONCLUSION: CTB time is a useful metric to assess the overall performance of a PPCI service. Delays to reperfusion remain important even in the era of organised national PPCI services with rapid treatment times and efforts should continue to minimise treatment delays.