Geographical variation in the clinical presentation of endomyocardial fibrosis in India?

OBJECTIVES: To compare the clinical presentation, clinical profile and survival of two groups of endomyocardial fibrosis patients. METHODS: The study was a prospective cohort study, or a prospective case series, comparing all consecutive echocardiographically proven patients with endomyocardial fibrosis seen in Medical College Trivandrum with the patients seen in Medical College Hospital, Alappuzha(Alleppey) (or TD Medical College). In all patients the clinical details like age, sex, type of endomyocardial fibrosis, the presence of anaemia, eosinophilia, neutrophilia and type of rhythm(Sinus or atrial fibrillation) etc were compared by both simple X2 and by Kaplan Meier survival curves. RESULTS: The mean age and the sex distribution was same in both places Briefly the incidence of biventricular endomyocardial fibrosis was more from Trivandrum than Alleppey, 64.9% vs 14.3% (p<0.0.001), the incidence of atrial fibrillation was more in Trivandrum 44.2% vs 16.3%. (p<0.001)The overall survival of Trivandrum patients was poorer (p<0.0001). The six year survival was 61% in the Trivandrum population whereas it was 91.5% in the Alleppey population. CONCLUSIONS: These differences may have been due to the better nutrition of the Alleppey patients due to a higher exposure to fish compared to the Trivandrum population. Better nutrition would protect against Magnesium deficiency and prevent the absorption of Cerium in the patients from Alleppey, compared to those from Trivandrum.

A prominent 'A' notch in the pulmonary valve M mode-one more cause of the same.

The M mode echocardiogram is not the main priority, during routine echocardiographic evaluation now-a-days. However, there are still a few classical conditions where this remains instructive and educative. One such situation is the presence of an 'a' wave in the pulmonary valve M mode tracing in normals and it's absence in pulmonary hypertension. In valvular pulmonary stenosis we expect a deeper 'a' wave. We describe one more cause of a prominent 'a' wave in the pulmonary valve M mode. We describe this in a common tropical disease, endemic to Kerala.

An uncommon picture of endomyocardial fibrosis: no embolism yet.

We present here a review of the various gradings of endomyocardial fibrosis from autopsy (Shaper's types). Echocardiography accurately delineates the extent of fibrosis of either the right or left ventricle and we have illustrated a typical classical case. We have images of the same patient from 2010, 2011 and 2012 and so we use this to illustrate the echocardiographic gradings.