Isolated bilateral coronary artery ostial stenosis in aortitis syndrome.

Isolated bilateral coronary artery ostial stenosis is a rare condition that has been associated with various diseases. We present the case of a 47-year-old male with bilateral coronary ostial stenosis. The patient's history was not significant for systemic diseases. The aorta had prominent signs of aortitis of unknown etiology, possibly due to a chronic mycotic process. The patient underwent emergency surgery and had an uneventful course. The two-year follow up is excellent.

Left atrial giant thrombus infected by Escherichia Coli. Case report.

BACKGROUND: Left atrial thrombi are mostly related to mitral valve disease. The differential diagnosis of clots and myxomas in the left atrium is mostly based on echocardiography. Infection of intracardiac thrombi is extremely rare and mostly reported in ventricular clots or aneurysms following myocardial infarction. CASE PRESENTATION: We present the case of a 65 year old female with a history of mitral valve disease and chronic atrial fibrillation who suffered repeated embolic strokes and a giant infected clot in the left atrium. Although the patient underwent prompt surgery with removal of the clot and valve replacement the complication of septic emboli to the CNS led her to death. To the best of our knowledge this is the second report of an infected left atrial thrombus. CONCLUSION: The case is a representative example of a neglected and undertreated patient with catastrophic consequences. Anticoagulant therapy in patients with mitral valve disease and atrial fibrillation should be applied according the currently available guidelines and standards in order to avoid analogous paradigms in the future. Mitral valve substitution should be considered in patients with mitral valve disease presenting thromboembolic complications. Surgery should be considered as the treatment of choice in cases of organized left atrial thrombus and suspected tumor or infected mass.

Retrograde cardioplegia in CABG: is it really useful? The microcirculation and a capillary unit model.

Most surgeons, ourselves including, use retrograde cardioplegia in numerable operations in cardiac surgery. It is believed to be not only supplementary to antegrade, but also a unique alternative in special complicated cases. Regarding CABGs (coronary artery bypass grafts), many authors advocate its routine use together with antegrade, while others do not suggest it for standard practice. The existing disagreement on this special item is consequential to the different results among various protocols which have studied the effect of antegrade and retrograde perfusion. In these studies, fundamental variations in design, materials, and methods have resulted in an inability to compare results. Additionally, most of the published protocols studying cardioplegic arrest offer only a gross estimation of the microcirculatory perfusion, which is the basis of myocardial protection. Our present review is an attempt to elucidate the differences, explain the necessity of comparing retrograde cardioplegia alone with antegrade in CABGs for the reproduction of safe results, clarify the role of Thebesian veins and venovenous connections during retroperfusion, consider the critical anatomic differences between human hearts and those of animals which may result in serious study bias, and, finally, offer an explanation of what may really be going on in the microcirculation during antegrade and retrograde perfusion using a human capillary model.

Right diaphragm rupture with extended traumatic dissection of the descending aorta.

A 45-year-old man, with severe thoracic injury from a motor accident, is reported with traumatic aortic dissection type B and projection of the liver into the thoracic cavity due to a large rupture of the right hemidiaphragm. The patient was successfully managed with endoluminal stent placement in the descending thoracic aorta, and right thoracotomy for the repair of the diaphragmatic hernia. His postoperative course was uneventful. The co-existence of aortic traumatic dissection and right diaphragmatic rupture in trauma patients has never been reported in the literature previously, to our knowledge. Furthermore, the initial x-ray examination findings advocated injury of the right hemithorax and could be misleading. The diagnostic assessment must have a high index of suspicion, whereas the surgical manipulation needs to be fast and targeted to the major thoracic injuries of the patient.