Minimally invasive atrial fibrillation surgery (MIAFS) has become a well established and increasingly used option for managing patients with stand-alone arrhythmia. Pulmonary veins (PVs) isolation continues to be the cornerstone of ablation strategies. Indeed, in most cases, atrial fibrillation (AF) is triggered in or near the PVs. Nevertheless, ectopic beats initiating AF may occasionally aris...

The clinical appearance, typical localization, diagnostic procedure and the treatment of hemangiosarcoma--the most frequent malignant tumor of the heart are reported by the case of a 27 years old woman. The patient suffered from dyspnea, congestion of the superior caval vein and paroxysmal tachycardia. X-ray showed cardiac enlargement due to pericardial effusion. Echocardiography revealed a lar...

AIM To examine the cardiovascular effects of an intravenous bolus of morphine, 100 microg/kg, in 17 ventilated preterm infants. METHODS Heart rate and blood pressure were monitored. Right ventricular output, superior vena caval flow, and the width of the ductus arteriosus were measured by Doppler echocardiography 10 and 60 minutes after the morphine injection, and the values compared with bas...

The antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is an autoimmune condition characterized by the persisting presence of antiphospholipid antibodies in association with thrombosis and/or pregnancy morbidity. Primary APS is quite rare in childhood and exact prevalence is not known. However, substantial proportion of thrombotic events in children is being attributed to APS. We herein present a 9-year-old boy p...

Anomalous vena caval return to the left atrium (LA) is a rare congenital anomaly. The most common variant is a persistent left superior vena cava (SVC), estimated to occur among 2.1% to 4.3% of hearts with congenital defects.1 Much rarer, an anomalous right SVC connects to the LA.2 Similarly rare is inferior vena caval (IVC) return to the LA, which has been reported as a congenital anomaly ofte...

BACKGROUND Hypertension in the portal vein system stimulates the vascular system to develop a porto-caval collateral system, which occurs by adaptation of the already existing junctions between the porto-caval and the systemic circulation to changed conditions or by angiogenesis. CASE REPORT We present a case of a 42-year-old man with alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver and exacerbation of chron...

Anticoagulant therapy is highly effective and prevents death in more than 95% of patients who have suffered pulmonary embolism following deep vein thrombosis. Inferior vena caval filters provide an alternative to full anticoagulation in those patients at highest risk of catastrophic haemorrhagic complications. We report on two patients who developed deep vein thrombosis following ruptured unsec...

Aldosterone secretion (1) and aldosterone excretion in urine (2) are markedly elevated in dogs with chronic right heart failure and in dogs with chronic ascites secondary to thoracic caval constriction. It was suggested that the adrenal cortex is stimulated to secrete aldosterone by factors resulting from a high venous pressure and the consequent loss of fluid and electrolytes from the blood st...