Sudden death in a case of recurrent Takotsubo syndrome.

Herein we report an unusual case of sudden death occurring in a 65 year old woman during a minor oral surgery. The subject, who had a medically treated anxiety, had a history of two reversible left ventricle dysfunction episodes consistent with recurrent Takotsubo Syndrome that had occurred seven and six years before, respectively. She also suffered from moderate, well treated post-menopausal systemic hypertension. Post-mortem examination showed apical biventricular ballooning of the heart with no cardiac rupture, coronary artery lesion or other cardiac/extra-cardiac disease. Toxicological tests and forensic investigations excluded unnatural causes of death, including pharmacological or iatrogenic causes related to medical malpractice. Only non-specific contraction bands and mild hypertrophy were observed by histology in the left ventricle myocytes. Takotsubo syndrome is usually an acute and reversible heart failure syndrome with acute left ventricle apex ballooning, no coronary artery disease or other macroscopic or microscopic cardiac changes; physical or emotional stress are well known triggering factors. Nevertheless, recurrent forms, major cardiac adverse events and even sudden death may occur in a minority of cases, meaning that a diagnosis of Takotsubo syndrome must be considered in cases of sudden death and in forensic investigations.

[Eluting stents implantation in patient with situs viscerum inversus]. / Impianto di stent coronarico in un paziente con situs viscerum inversus.

A 73 year-old man, with known situs viscerum inversus, symptomatic for effort dyspnea, was admitted to our Department for inducible myocardial ischemia. Coronary angiography showed severe narrowings of the distal right coronary artery, treated by percutaneous coronary intervention and drug eluting stents implantation. Percutaneous coronary intervention was performed using standard diagnostic and guide catheters, requiring opposite manipulation and inverted angiographic projections.

Coronary artery anomalies and their clinical relevance.

Coronary artery anomalies (CAAs) represent one of the most confusing topic in cardiology and affect approximately 1% of the general population. Although some anomalies seem to be only anatomical curiosities, others may sometimes have fatal consequences. This review describes the anatomical characteristics of main CAAs and focuses on the pathophysiological mechanisms by which CAAs may cause a pathological state. The last section describes these therapeutical options of this congenital disorders.

Validation of an echo-Doppler decision model to predict left ventricular filling pressure in patients with heart failure independently of ejection fraction.

AIMS: To test a decision model for non-invasive estimation of left ventricular filling pressure (LVFP) in patients with left ventricular (LV) dysfunction and a wide range of ejection fractions (EF). METHODS AND RESULTS: In patients with LV dysfunction (n = 270; EF = 42 +/- 16%), classification and regression tree (CART) analysis was used to generate a model for the prediction of elevated LVFP, defined as pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP) >15 mmHg, in a derivation cohort (n = 178). At each step of the decision tree, nodes including single or multiple criteria connected by Boolean operators were tested to achieve the best information entropy gain. Averaged mitral-to-myocardial early velocities ratio (E/e') > or =13 OR E-wave deceleration time <150 ms was closely associated with elevated LVFP. Alternatively, prediction of PCWP >15 mmHg needed the following criteria to be satisfied: (i) intermediate E/e' (13 > E/e' > 8); (ii) left atrial volume index >40 mL/m(2) OR ratio of mitral E-wave and colour M-mode propagation velocity >2 OR difference in duration of pulmonary vein and mitral flow at atrial contraction >30 ms; (iii) estimated pulmonary artery systolic pressure >35 mmHg. Patients were correctly allocated according to PCWP with an 87% sensitivity and a 90% specificity. Compared with the best single parameter estimating LVFP, a 17% relative increase in accuracy was achieved in patients with EF >50%. The model was prospectively validated in a testing group (n = 92): 80% sensitivity, 78% specificity. CONCLUSION: This sequential testing is useful to non-invasively predict LVFP in patients with LV dysfunction, especially in those with preserved EF.

Prognostic significance of tricuspid annular motion and plasma NT-proBNP in patients with heart failure and moderate-to-severe functional mitral regurgitation.

BACKGROUND: The role of the right ventricle has been relatively neglected proportionate to its importance. We sought to evaluate the impact of right ventricular (RV) and NT-proBNP on the outcome of patients with heart failure (HF) and functional mitral regurgitation (MR). METHODS AND PATIENTS: Outpatients with left ventricular (LV) systolic HF (ejection fraction [EF] < or =45%) and moderate-to-severe MR measured by a vena contracta width > or =0.5 cm were prospectively enrolled (n=142). Indexes of LV and RV function, including tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE), RV fractional area change and tissue Doppler RV acceleration at isovolumic contraction and NT-proBNP plasma levels were measured at the time of the index echocardiogram. RESULTS: Multivariate predictors of all-cause mortality included TAPSE<16 mm (hazards ratio [HR]: 2.64; p=0.009) and plasma NT-proBNP> or =3283 pg/ml (HR: 2.58; p=0.011). TAPSE<16 mm and plasma NT-proBNP> or =3283 pg/ml added incremental prognostic information to LV EF< or =25%, NYHA classes 3-4, coronary artery disease, elderly age and male sex. The 36-month Kaplan-Meier curve showed that survival was worst in the group with TAPSE<16 mm and NT-proBNP> or =3283 pg/ml (p<0.0001). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates the significance of TAPSE and plasma NT-proBNP in predicting all-cause mortality in patients with systolic HF and moderate-to-severe functional MR.