[Tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy]. / Arytmogenna kardiomiopatia rozstrzeniowa.

Dilated cardiomyopathy induces circulatory insufficiency with poor prognosis. Persistent tachyarrhythmias may be the cause of this disease. At particular high risk for heart damage and insufficiency are young people and children. The group of most dangerous arrhythmias consist of: incessant tachycardia in patients with preexcitation syndrome and supraventricular tachyarrhythmias (atrial flutter and fibrillation, ectopic atrial tachycardia) with high rate of ventricles. The result of arrhythmias is dilatation of the heart and thinness of ventricular walls with hemodynamic disorders. The effective therapy of arrhythmias--ablation of the accessory pathway in patients with pre-excitation syndrome or reversion to sinus rhythm (pharmacological or electric cardioversion) in patients with atrial fibrillation and flutter, often leads to normalisation of heart ejection function and diameter. Therefore it exist important question: is dilated cardiomyopathy the cause or consequence of tachyarrhythmias? Causative antiarrhythmic therapy in these second cases gives a possibility to improve the prognosis in patients with such a disease.

[Chylopericardium as a complication of mitral valve replacement]. / Chylopericardium--powiklanie po operacji wymiany zastawki mitralnej.

We demonstrate the case of 47 year old woman with chylopericardium after mitral valve replacement. By reason of heart tamponade she underwent surgical treatment resulted in complete relief of the pericardial effusion.

[Arrhythmogenic dysplasia of the right heart ventricle]. / Arytmogenna dysplazja prawej komory serca.

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD) is a heart muscle disease in which muscle tissue has been partially replaced by adipose or fibro-adipose tissue. Morphologic changes in the right ventricle and ventricular arrhythmias are characteristic. Pathomorphological changes should be confirmed by NMR or endomyocardial biopsy. Morphological changes ought to be found by ultrasound methods or angiographic examination. ECG exercise test, Holter monitoring, late potentials, total ventricular activation time and programmed stimulation of right ventricle are used to evaluate the risk of sudden death due to ventricular arrhythmias which is the most important problem. Those methods indicate pharmacologic or invasive therapy (RF ablation, implanted cardioverter-defibrillators), and are used to establish the effectiveness of treatment.

[Diagnostic and therapeutic problems in myocarditis]. / Problemy diagnostyczne i terapeutyczne w przebiegu zapalenia miesnia sercowego.

A case of myocarditis is presented. Primary clinical course corresponded rather to the active inflammatory process whereas multiple histologic examination of myocardium specimens revealed "borderline" myocarditis. Patient's clinical status justified the treatment with corticosteroids. The disease recurred two months following the completion of therapy, and histological examination correlated with clinical course of the active myocarditis. Diagnostic and therapeutic problems, management, the obtained results and conclusions are discussed.