Left Atrial Decompression Using Unidirectional Left-to-Right Interatrial Shunt

Left atrial decompression through unidirectional left-to-right interatrial shunt for the treatment of left heart failure: first-in-man experience with the V-Wave device.

AIMS Elevated filling pressures of the left atrium (LA) are associated with poorer outcomes in patients with chronic heart failure. The V-Wave is a new percutaneously implanted device intended to decrease the LA pressure by the shunting of blood from the LA to the right atrium. This report describes the first-in-man experience with the V-Wave device. METHODS AND RESULTS A 70-year-old man with...

Postpneumonectomy interatrial right-to-left shunt.

Right-to-Left Shunt

The patient is a 25-year-old woman transferred to Hermann Hospital 3 days after admission to an outlying facility. The patient initially woke up at 3 AM with acute onset of nausea, mild headache, hemoptysis (1⁄4/4 cup of fresh blood), and worsening shortness of breath. She then noticed weakness in the right half of her body associated with dysarthria. She had no associated chest pain or palpita...

Left ventricular to right atrial shunt resulting from infective endocarditis.

A unique case is described in which infective endocarditis of the aortic valve led to intractable heart failure and necropsy examination showed that the patient had developed a communication between the left ventricle and right atrium.

Prediction of intrapulmonary right to left shunt with left atrial size in patients with liver cirrhosis.

BACKGROUND We screened a large number of liver transplant candidates with contrast echocardiography to detect intrapulmonary right to left shunt (IPS). We found that IPS is frequently present in patients with left atrial enlargement. This finding raises a question concerning the correlation between IPS and left atrial size in patients with liver cirrhosis. OBJECTIVES The aim of this prospecti...