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Medicine Apr 2022A coronary artery fistula (CAF) is an anomalous communication between a coronary artery and a cardiac chamber or great vessel. It is a rare congenital anomaly that is...
RATIONALE
A coronary artery fistula (CAF) is an anomalous communication between a coronary artery and a cardiac chamber or great vessel. It is a rare congenital anomaly that is often small and asymptomatic, occurring in only 0.002% of the general population. Most CAFs originate from the right coronary artery and flow into the right cardiac system. Although extremely rare, some cases may originate from the bilateral coronary arteries and flow into the left ventricle.
PATIENT CONCERNS
Herein, we report a rare case of a 55-year-old male smoker with no history of heart disease or cardiac surgery, who presented with a 5-year history of recurrent chest congestion, palpitations, and shortness of breath. On physical examination, his heart and lungs revealed normal findings without cardiac murmurs and no systemic or pulmonary edema. Moreover, 24-hour ambulatory electrocardiography showed no signs of ischemia but exhibited a short array of ventricular tachycardia and short atrial tachycardia. Chest computed tomography showed left apical emphysema without cardiomegaly and pulmonary congestion. Furthermore, coronary angiography revealed dual congenital coronary cameral fistula, a complex CAF with a left circumflex artery-left ventricle fistula and a right coronary artery-left ventricle fistula, complicated with a myocardial bridge.
DIAGNOSIS AND INTERVENTIONS
A diagnosis of left circumflex artery-left ventricle fistula complicated with a right coronary artery-left ventricle fistula and myocardial bridge was made. Since the patient refused surgery, medical management with enteric-coated aspirin, sustained-release metoprolol, and atorvastatin calcium was initiated.
OUTCOMES AND LESSON
Currently, the patient is now asymptomatic and in good condition since 6 months after undergoing conservative treatment with β-blockers.
Topics: Coronary Angiography; Coronary Artery Disease; Fistula; Heart Defects, Congenital; Humans; Male; Middle Aged
PubMed: 35482979
DOI: 10.1097/MD.0000000000028952 -
Children (Basel, Switzerland) Mar 2022Pediatricians and pediatric surgeons often face children with cardiomegaly and dilatative or hypertrophic cardiomyopathies presenting with or without symptoms. Some of...
BACKGROUND
Pediatricians and pediatric surgeons often face children with cardiomegaly and dilatative or hypertrophic cardiomyopathies presenting with or without symptoms. Some of these patients have already been diagnosed and received medication, and some present with completely unrelated pathologies.
METHODS
We performed a 4-year retrospective study on the causes and mechanisms of death of children with cardiac pathology who died outside the cardiology clinic of our hospital by studying the hospital charts and necropsy reports. All children who were in this situation in our hospital were included.
RESULTS
Most children in our study group were infants (81.82%), most were boys (81.82%), and in most cases, the cause or mechanism of death was unrelated to their heart condition, whether it had already been diagnosed or not (one case probably died as a result of a malignant ventricular arrhythmia). Additionally, 27.27% of children died as a consequence of bronchopneumonia, the same percentage died as a consequence of an acquired non-pulmonary disease or after surgery, and 18.18% died as a consequence of congenital malformations.
CONCLUSIONS
Cardiac disease needs to be thoroughly investigated using multiple tools for all children presenting with heart failure symptoms, those with heart murmurs, and children scheduled for surgery of any type. The intensive care specialist and surgeon need to be aware of any heart pathology before non-cardiac surgical interventions.
PubMed: 35327707
DOI: 10.3390/children9030335 -
American Family Physician Mar 2022
Topics: Child; Heart Auscultation; Heart Murmurs; Humans; Parents
PubMed: 35289586
DOI: No ID Found -
American Family Physician Mar 2022Up to 8.6% of infants and 80% of children have a heart murmur during their early years of life. The presence of a murmur can indicate conditions ranging from no...
Up to 8.6% of infants and 80% of children have a heart murmur during their early years of life. The presence of a murmur can indicate conditions ranging from no discernable pathology to acquired or congenital heart disease. In infants with a murmur, physicians should review the obstetric and family histories to detect the possibility of congenital heart pathologies. Evaluation by a pediatric cardiologist is indicated for newborns with a murmur because studies show that neonatal murmurs have higher rates of pathology than in older children, and neonatal murmur characteristics are more difficult to evaluate during examination; referral is preferred over echocardiography. All infants, with or without a murmur, should have pulse oximetry screening to detect underlying critical congenital heart disease. In older children, most murmurs are innocent and can be followed with serial examinations if there are no findings of concern. Findings in older children that warrant referral include diastolic murmurs, loud or harsh-sounding murmurs, holosystolic murmurs, murmurs that radiate to the back or neck, or signs or symptoms of cardiac disease. Referral to a pediatric cardiologist is indicated when a pathologic murmur is suspected. Electrocardiography, chest radiography, and other tests should not be reflexively performed as part of all murmur evaluations because these tests can misclassify a murmur as innocent or pathologic, and they are not cost-effective. Emerging technologies include phonocardiography interpretation of murmurs and artificial intelligence algorithms for differentiating innocent from pathologic murmurs.
Topics: Artificial Intelligence; Child; Echocardiography; Electrocardiography; Heart Defects, Congenital; Heart Murmurs; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn
PubMed: 35289571
DOI: No ID Found -
Scientific Reports Mar 2022The hemodynamic consequences of aging have been extensively investigated during maximal incremental exercise. However, less is known about the effects of aging on...
The hemodynamic consequences of aging have been extensively investigated during maximal incremental exercise. However, less is known about the effects of aging on hemodynamics during submaximal steady-state exercise. The aim of the present investigation was to compare the hemodynamics of healthy elderly and young subjects during an exercise bout conducted at the gas threshold (GET) intensity. Two groups of healthy, physically active subjects were studied: the elderly group-EG (n = 11; > 60 years old) and the young group-YG (n = 13; < 35 years old). Both groups performed a 5-min rectangular exercise test at the GET intensity. Hemodynamics were measured using echocardiography. The main finding was that stroke volume responses were higher in the YG than the EG (72.5 ± 16.7 vs. 52.4 ± 8.4 ml, respectively). The increased stroke volume capacity in the YG was the consequence of a greater capacity to increase cardiac preload and contractility and, to a lesser extent, to reduce systemic vascular resistance. Importantly, the atrial contribution to ventricular diastolic filling was substantially higher in the YG when compared to the EG.
Topics: Adult; Aged; Cardiac Output; Diastole; Exercise; Hemodynamics; Humans; Middle Aged; Stroke Volume; Systolic Murmurs
PubMed: 35264702
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-07933-7 -
The American Journal of Case Reports Mar 2022BACKGROUND This report presents a rare case of a traumatic innominate artery to left innominate vein fistula following a stab wound to the base of the neck. CASE REPORT...
BACKGROUND This report presents a rare case of a traumatic innominate artery to left innominate vein fistula following a stab wound to the base of the neck. CASE REPORT We report a case of a 23-year-old patient with a traumatic innominate-innominate arteriovenous fistula, after being stabbed in the suprasternal notch area 3 years prior. The patient presented with fatigue, and shortness of breath on exertion. Examination revealed a wide pulse pressure, bounding pulses, and a continuous murmur on the upper sternal area. Chest X-rays, echocardiography, CT angiography, and cardiac catheterization were useful to aid in diagnosis and work-up for fistula repair. A complex 8-mm fistula between the left innominate vein and the proximal innominate artery was noted, with multiple tortuous channels and demonstrating a reversible left-to-right shunt. After medical optimization, successful surgical ligation and division of the fistula was done through median sternotomy without cardiopulmonary bypass. The postoperative recovery was uneventful. CONCLUSIONS Traumatic innominate-innominate arteriovenous fistulas are rare and can pose a diagnostic challenge. High index of suspicion, careful history, examination, and radiologic evaluation usually result in correct diagnosis. Endovascular and surgical approaches are the mainstay treatment.
Topics: Adult; Arteriovenous Fistula; Brachiocephalic Veins; Computed Tomography Angiography; Heart Murmurs; Humans; Wounds, Stab; Young Adult
PubMed: 35264551
DOI: 10.12659/AJCR.934270 -
BioMed Research International 2022Most researchers use features of diastolic murmurs to identify coronary artery disease. However, the diastolic murmurs of coronary artery disease are usually very weak...
Most researchers use features of diastolic murmurs to identify coronary artery disease. However, the diastolic murmurs of coronary artery disease are usually very weak and are easily contaminated by noise and valvular murmurs. Therefore, the diagnostic accuracy of coronary artery disease when only using diastolic murmurs is not well. An algorithm for improving the accuracy in the identification of coronary artery disease by combining the features of the first heart sound and diastolic murmurs was proposed. Firstly, a first heart sound feature extraction algorithm was used to identify coronary artery disease from noncoronary artery disease. Secondly, the Empirical Wavelet Transform algorithm was used to decompose the diastolic heart sound into three modes, and the spectral energy of each mode was calculated to distinguish coronary artery disease from noncoronary artery disease. Then, the features of the fist heart sound, the second diastolic spectral energy, and the parameter P3, which was used to discriminate the diastolic murmurs in coronary artery disease and in valvular disease, were combined together to improve the diagnostic accuracy of coronary artery disease. The comparison experiment results show that the accuracy of the proposed algorithm is superior to some state-of-the-art methods when they are used to diagnose coronary artery disease.
Topics: Algorithms; Coronary Artery Disease; Heart Murmurs; Heart Sounds; Humans; Wavelet Analysis
PubMed: 35252442
DOI: 10.1155/2022/3058835 -
Psychiatria Danubina Dec 2021The most common clinical sign in pediatric cardiology is heart murmur, which can often be uncharacteristic. The aim of this research was to present the results of...
The most common clinical sign in pediatric cardiology is heart murmur, which can often be uncharacteristic. The aim of this research was to present the results of development of a classifier based on machine learning algorithms whose purpose is to classify organic murmur that occur in congenital heart defect (CHD). The study is based on the data collected at Pediatric Clinic, Clinical Center University of Sarajevo during three-year period. Totally, 116 children aged from 1 to 15 years were enrolled in the study. Input parameters for classification are parameters obtained during basic physical examination and assessment of patient. First, analysis of relevance of the feature for classification was done using InfoGain, GainRatio, Relief and Correlation method. In the second step, classifiers based on Naive Bayes, Logistic Regression, Decision Tree, Random Forest and Support Vector Machine were developed and compared by performance. The results of this research suggest that high accuracy (>90%) classifier for detection of CHD based on 16 parameters can be developed. Such classifier with appropriate user interface would be valuable diagnostic aid to doctors and pediatricians at primary healthcare level for diagnostic of heart murmurs.
Topics: Adolescent; Algorithms; Bayes Theorem; Child; Child, Preschool; Echocardiography; Heart Defects, Congenital; Heart Murmurs; Humans; Infant; Machine Learning
PubMed: 35150491
DOI: No ID Found -
Computational and Mathematical Methods... 2022This study was to investigate the value of echocardiographic data in assessing changes in cardiac function before and after transcatheter closure in children and adult...
This study was to investigate the value of echocardiographic data in assessing changes in cardiac function before and after transcatheter closure in children and adult patients with patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). In this study, 150 patients with isolated PDA treated by cardiac catheterization and transcatheter closure were selected as the study sample. Real-time color Doppler echocardiography was used both after and after operation. The results showed that the left ventricle returned to normal in 75 patients one day after operation, with an average age of 10.95 ± 3.27 years; the left ventricle did not return to normal in 10 patients 360 days after operation, with an average age of 64.31 ± 7.05 years. Left ventricular end diastolic volume index (LVEDVI) and left ventricular end systolic volume index (LVESVI) of patients decreased significantly one day after operation and remained at 51.95 ± 9.55 mL/m and 20.36 ± 8.11 mL/m, respectively. In summary, echocardiographic data have a high reference value in assessing cardiac function characteristics in children and adult patients with PDA and are worthy of further promotion.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena; Child; Computational Biology; Ductus Arteriosus, Patent; Echocardiography; Echocardiography, Doppler, Color; Female; Heart Function Tests; Heart Murmurs; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Vascular Closure Devices; Ventricular Function, Left; Young Adult
PubMed: 35126616
DOI: 10.1155/2022/1310841 -
Animals : An Open Access Journal From... Dec 2021Heart murmurs are detected frequently when auscultating horses and certain murmurs can usually be linked to specific valvular regurgitations. Limited information exists...
Heart murmurs are detected frequently when auscultating horses and certain murmurs can usually be linked to specific valvular regurgitations. Limited information exists about the accuracy of these broad rules in warmblood horses and the influence of grade of the regurgitation and dimensional changes on murmur intensity. This study aims to clarify the accuracy of cardiac auscultation in warmblood horses and the influence of the grade of regurgitation and dimensional changes on the loudness of the murmur. In this retrospective study, 822 warmblood horses presented for cardiac examination in a large equine referral center in northern Germany underwent a thorough cardiac auscultation. In total, 653 of these revealed one or more heart murmurs. Most common auscultatory findings were left-sided systolic murmurs (68%) or left-sided diastolic murmurs (15%). On 635 of these horses, an echocardiographic examination was performed, revealing regurgitations of the mitral valve as the most common valvular regurgitation (77%) followed by regurgitations of the aortic valve (23%). Thirty-one percent of horses that underwent echocardiographic examination displayed dimensional changes of one or more compartments of the heart, with the left atrium being most affected (21%), followed by the left ventricle (13%). The main goal of this study was to link certain auscultatory findings with results of the echocardiographic examinations, trying to determine whether auscultation and echocardiography agreed on the valve affected, as well as to find out if loudness of the murmur coincided with grade of regurgitation and presence of dimensional changes. Agreement between auscultation and cardiac ultrasound was substantial (Kappa 0.74) if one or more murmurs and regurgitations were present and almost perfect (Kappa 0.94) if only one murmur and one regurgitation were found. Auscultation was particularly well suited for detection of left-sided systolic and diastolic murmurs, with 87% of left-sided systolic murmurs being caused by a mitral valve regurgitation and 81% of left-sided diastolic murmurs originating from an aortic valve regurgitation. We found a fair agreement between the grade of regurgitation and the respective murmur. Association was particularly good between mild regurgitations and low-grade murmurs, while differentiation between moderate to severe regurgitation based upon the loudness of the murmur was less reliable. Dimensional changes were usually linked to more severe regurgitations and higher-grade murmurs. However, a direct correlation between murmur intensity and the presence or severity of dimensional changes, independent of the grade of valvular regurgitation, could not be established in this cohort of horses.
PubMed: 34944240
DOI: 10.3390/ani11123463