Retrocardiac mass causing collapse

Late thoracic pseudo-aneurysm causing collapse of vascular prostheses.

The outcome of patients with thoracic vascular prostheses is usually uneventful. We report two cases of collapse of thoracic vascular prostheses which occurred ten and forty years, respectively, after the implantation. The diagnoses were obtained preoperatively by CT-scan or NMR and angiography. Both patients were successfully treated with prosthetic replacement by an open approach.

Retrocardiac textiloma mimicking a left atrium myxoma.

In December 2009, a 79-year-old white man was admitted to the Department of Cardiology for a moderate dyspnea (New York Heart Association II) with breath. His past medical history included a cardiac surgery with double coronary arteries bypass grafting in 1996 and thyroid cancer treated with surgery and radiotherapy. On admission, the physical examination revealed regular heart sounds at 60 bpm...

A morbillivirus causing mass mortality in seals.

During an outbreak of a serious apparently infectious disease among harbour seals (Phoca vitulina), which started in the Kattegat area in April 1988 and rapidly spread to the North sea, the Wadden sea and the Baltic sea, greater than 17,000 animals died within a period of eight months. In August 1988 it was realized that the clinical symptoms and pathological lesions were similar to those found...

Mediastinal Mass Causing Spinal Cord Compression

A 4-year-old Cambodian male presented to the emergency room with 2 weeks of gradually increasing leg weakness until he could no longer stand. He was also reported to have a deformity on his back, intermittent fevers and cough. His physical exam was notable for a 2 cm × 1 cm bony protrusion at his T4 vertebrae, and 2/5 strength and positive Babinski reflexes in his lower extremities. A chest x-r...

Massive anterior mediastinal mass causing cardiac compression.