A new performed, semi-rigid, polyethylene catheter, with built-in torque control, has been devised for entry to the pulmonary artery in complete transposition of the great arteries. It has been used 19 times in 17 patients: 18 times the pulmonary artery was entered from the right atrium (via the left atrium and ventricle) in a time between 40 s and 15 min (median 5 min); the patients' ages were...

A man aged 41 years with a clinical diagnosis of cardiomyopathy and hepatic insufficiency was found, on angiocardiography, to have a mass, presumably a thrombus, within the left ventricle. A second angiocardiogram performed five days later showed that the thrombus had disappeared. The mechanism invoked was more probably an increase of spontaneous fibrinolysis as described in cirrhotic patients,...

The significance of left atrial volume has been studied in 20 consecutive patients with mitral stenosis. Cardiac catheterization was performed and resting pressures in the right atrium, right ventricle, and pulmonary artery, as well as wedge pressure, were determined. Angiocardiography was performed immediately after cardiac catheterization. On the basis of these data the relationship between t...