brachial plexus injury (bpi) is an uncommon complication of median sternotomy capable of causing a permanent or transitory sensitivity and/or motor function impairment in the upper limbs. during a cardiac surgery through sternotomy, for the assessment of the thoracic cage configuration and the site of mediastinal structures, a broader surgical field may be required. if the sternal retractors ar...

introduction low-grade endometrial stromal sarcoma (lg-ess) is a malignant intrauterine tumor that rarely presents with distant metastasis. simultaneous lung and cardiac metastases from lg-ess is also an extremely rare event. case presentation a 42-year-old woman presented with dyspnea and exercise intolerance. she had a history of hysterectomy and left salpingoophorectomy. she underwent second...

left ventricular non-compaction cardiomyopathy is a rare congenital cardiomyopathy that affects both children and adults. since the clinical manifestations are not sufficient to establish diagnosis, echocardiography is the diagnostic tool that makes it possible to document ventricular non-compaction and establish prognostic factors. we report a 47-year-old woman with a history of dilated cardio...

BACKGROUND AL amyloidosis and multiple myeloma result in extracellular deposition of insoluble fibrillary protein in tissue and organs. Untreated median survival is very poor, and even worse with cardiac involvement. Chemotherapy and peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) have been shown to dramatically improve survival, with hematologic remission documented. Regression of cardiac c...

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public hospital(s). Main source(s): S. Orsola Hospital Background Differential diagnosis cardiac masses represents a challenging issue with important implications for therapeutic management and patient’s prognosis. Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR) is non-invasive imaging technique used to characterize morphologic functional features mas...

Coronary artery disease (CAD) and other acquired and congenital cardiac diseases are major medical and socioeconomic problems. CAD affects 13.2 million Americans and was responsible for 502 189 deaths in 2001. In 2004, the direct and indirect economic impact of CAD was in excess of $120 billion, which was about one-third of the total costs attributable to cardiovascular diseases (1). Historical...