Evaluation of causal heart diseases in cardioembolic stroke by cardiac computed tomography.

Cardioembolic stroke is a potentially devastating condition and tends to have a poor prognosis compared with other ischemic stroke subtypes. Therefore, it is important for proper therapeutic management to identify a cardiac source of embolism in stroke patients. Cardiac computed tomography (CCT) can detect the detailed visualization of various cardiac pathologies in the cardiac chambers, interatrial and interventricular septum, valves, and myocardium with few motion artifacts and few dead angles. Multiphase reconstruction images of the entire cardiac cycle make it possible to demonstrate cardiac structures in a dynamic manner. Consequently, CCT has the ability to provide high-quality information about causal heart disease in cardioembolic stroke. In addition, CCT can simultaneously evaluate obstructive coronary artery disease, which may be helpful in surgical planning in patients who need urgent surgery, such as cardiac tumors or infective endocarditis. This review will introduce the potential clinical applications of CCT in an ischemic stroke population, with a focus on diagnosing cardioembolic sources using CCT.

Rapidly progressive myocardial calcification following sepsis.

Sepsis is a clinical syndrome caused by a dysregulated host response to infection that can lead to multiple organ dysfunction and death. Cardiovascular abnormalities are frequent in sepsis and may result in myocardial injury unrelated to coronary artery disease. Myocardial calcification is a rare complication of sepsis, which shows rapid-onset extensive myocardial calcifications. We present a case of a 67-year-old man who developed severe sepsis complicated with shock, acute renal failure, and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Initial chest computed tomography (CT) on admission showed normal left ventricular (LV) myocardial attenuation. However, serial chest CT demonstrated a gradual increase of the LV myocardial attenuation, which ultimately resulted in extensive myocardial calcification within 6 weeks. Sepsis-related myocardial calcification is usually found in patients with severe sepsis complicated with hemodynamic failure requiring vasopressors, acute renal failure necessitating renal replacement therapy, and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Although the prognostic significance of this pathology is unclear, it may be a precursor to long-term irreversible cardiomyopathy or an arrhythmogenic substrate that induces life-threatening arrhythmias. Therefore, patients who have survived the acute phase of severe sepsis need to be monitored carefully for signs of this complication by an imaging modality such as CT. .

Acute coronary syndrome on non-electrocardiogram-gated contrast-enhanced computed tomography.

It is not rare for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients to present with symptoms that are atypical, rather than chest pain. It is sometimes difficult to achieve a definitive diagnosis of ACS for such patients who present with atypical symptoms, normal initial biomarkers of myocardial necrosis, and normal or nondiagnostic electrocardiograms (ECGs). Although cardiac CT allows for assessments of coronary artery stenosis as well as myocardial perfusion defect in patients with suspected ACS, it requires ECG gating and is usually performed with high-performance multislice CT for highly probable ACS patients. However, several recent reports have stated that ACS is detectable by myocardial perfusion defects even on routine non-ECG-gated contrast-enhanced CT. A growing number of contrast-enhanced CT scans are now being performed in emergency departments in search of pathologies responsible for a patient's presenting symptoms. In order to avoid inappropriate management for this life-threatening event, clinicians should be aware that myocardial perfusion defect is more commonly detectable even on routine non-ECG-gated contrast-enhanced CT performed in search of other pathologies.