Transient cortical blindness: a benign but devastating complication after coronary angiography and graft study.

Transient cortical blindness after coronary angiography and bypass graft is a very rare complication. In this report we present the case of a 63-year-old man who developed transient cortical blindness within 30 minutes of coronary angioplasty and graft study, but subsequently recovered within 72 hours without any neurological deficit. A plain computed tomography brain scan showed bilateral symmetrical subarachnoid hyperdensities in the posterior cerebral circulation area suspicious of subarachnoid bleed. However, magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance angiography scans were normal. Excess contrast volume causing direct neurotoxicity seems to be the most probable cause, but the exact mechanism is unclear.

Young coronary artery disease in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Understanding the nature and pattern of young coronary artery disease (CAD) is important due to the tremendous impact on these patients' socio-economic and physical aspect. Data on young CAD in the southeast Asian region is rather patchy and limited. Hence we utilized our National Cardiovascular Disease Database (NCVD)-Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) Registry to analyze young patients who underwent PCI in the year 2007 to 2009. DESIGN AND SETTINGS: This is a retrospective study of all patients who had undergone coronary angioplasty from 2007 to 2009 in 11 hospitals across Malaysia. METHODS: Data were obtained from the NCVD-PCI Registry, 2007 to 2009. Patients were categorized into 2 groups-young and old, where young was defined as less than 45 years for men and less than 55 years for women and old was defined as more than or equals to 45 years for men and more than or equals to 55 years for women. Patients' baseline characteristics, risk factor profile, extent of coronary disease and outcome on dis.charge, and 30-day and 1-year follow-up were compared between the 2 groups. RESULTS: We analyzed 10268 patients, and the prevalence of young CAD was 16% (1595 patients). There was a significantly low prevalence of Chinese patients compared to other major ethnic groups. Active smoking (30.2% vs 17.7%) and obesity (20.9% vs 17.3%) were the 2 risk factors more associated with young CAD. There is a preponderance toward single vessel disease in the young CAD group, and they had a favorable clinical outcome in terms of all-cause mortality at discharge (RR 0.49 [CI 0.26-0.94]) and 1-year follow-up (RR 0.47 [CI 0.19-1.15]). CONCLUSION: We observed distinctive features of young CAD that would serve as a framework in the primary and secondary prevention of the early onset CAD.

Life-saving percutaneous intervention in young patient with massive pulmonary embolism.

Massive pulmonary embolism (PE) is not an uncommon condition, and it usually carries a high risk of mortality. It is one of the fatal conditions that commonly affect young patients. A definitive treatment for patients with massive PE is still lacking, and surgical intervention carries a substantial mortality risk. Thus, percutaneous intervention (clot fragmentation and/or aspiration) remains an option in some patients, specifically in those with a risk of bleeding, contraindicating the use of thrombolysis. There have been no randomized trials to validate percutaneous intervention in massive PE. A sufficient level of evidence is still lacking, and its use depends upon the expert committee's opinion and study of previous case reports. We present a 23-year-old man with first onset massive PE secondary to protein C deficiency, who was treated successfully with the combination of systemic thrombolysis and percutaneous interventions.

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy in association with hyperthyroidism.

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is a rare, acute, nonischemic cardiomyopathy causing transient left ventricular dysfunction, which can mimic myocardial infarction on its presentation. While many cardiac manifestations have been associated with hyperthyroidism, we report a rare case where it has precipitated takotsubo cardiomyopathy.