A 22-year-old woman was originally referred to a cardiologist because of an abnormal chest radiograph (fig 1) obtained during a routine medical examination. The patient admitted to having had increasing dyspnoea for about one year and for this reason had discontinued her studies as a nurse six months previously. At the cardiological examination pulse, blood pressure, heart sounds were normal, a...

This 10-year-old girl was transferred from an outside hospital for evaluation of cardiomegaly. She had been well until several weeks before admission when she started complaining of increasing fatigue and dyspnea on exertion. Three days before admission, she developed a dry cough and left-sided chest pain, without any fever or viral symptoms. Review of systems was otherwise unremarkable. Past h...

Seventeen patients with Ebstein's malformation of the tricuspid valve have been evaluated. The majority of patients (11/17) presented in the newborn period with cyanosis and cardiomegaly. The remainder (6/17) were referred because of cardiomegaly on chest X-ray and/or a heart murmur heard on routine examination. Three patients have died; one in the newborn period and two suddenly at the age of ...

The course of dilated cardiomyopathy in New Zealand was studied in 72 cases that were followed up for less than or equal to 10 years after cardiac catheterisation and coronary angiography. Eighty one per cent were male and 86% were white; the remainder were Maori. The mean age of patients at the time of investigation was 50 X 15 years. Most patients were unskilled labourers. The commonest prese...

The baby weighed 2.2 kg and was tachypneic. There was depressor anguli oris muscle deficiency on the left side (Fig. 1) and polydactyly in both the lower limbs. The cardiovascular system examination showed mild cardiomegaly, normal heart sounds and an ejection systolic murmur of Grade III intensity over the left lower sternal border. The liver was palpable 4 cm below the right costal margin in ...

A 50-year-old woman with rheumatic heart disease, mitral stenosis, and critical isolated left main ostial stenosis was successfully treated by mitral valve replacement, tricuspid annuloplasty, and surgery of left main osteoplasty and is reported for its rarity. Notable clinical findings included an intermittently irregular pulse, blood pressure of 100/70 mmHg, cardiomegaly, a diastolic precordi...

A systematic study following infection by various strains of the protozoan parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, and the simultaneous monitoring of the humoral immune response together with the elicited cellular response, could add greatly to our understanding of differences between strains of this important human pathogen. In that sense, acute and chronic infections with distinct T. cruzi strains (Y, B...