The diagnosis of encephalitis is particularly challenging in immunocompromised patients. We report here a case of fatal West Nile virus encephalitis confounded by the presence of budding yeast in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from a patient who had undergone heart transplantation for dilated cardiomyopathy 11 months prior to presentation of neurologic symptoms.

Cyclophosphamide is increasingly used to treat various types of cancers and autoimmune conditions. Higher doses of this drug may produce significant cardiac toxicity, including fatal hemorrhagic myocarditis. In this review, we present a case of cyclophosphamide-induced cardiomyopathy requiring mechanical circulatory support. We also describe the pathophysiology, clinical manifestations, and ris...

A neonate presented with mucopolysaccharidosis-like phenotypic expression and typical signs of dysostosis multiplex but without urinary excretion of glycosaminoglycans. Investigations of lysosomal enzymes in cultured fibroblasts revealed a mucolipidosis type 2, known as I-cell disease. We describe the fatal course of the patient due to complications of an uncommon dilated cardiomyopathy in this...

Wide complex tachycardias are a commonly encountered entity in coronary care units, intensive care units and emergency departments. Though, these arrhythmias are potentially fatal, they need to recognized first and treated appropriately. Associated physical signs are helpful in this. We present a case of a 54-year-old-female who recently underwent placement of an implantable cardioverter-defibr...

A 68-year-old man was admitted with high fever and dyspnea. Under the diagnoses of pneumonia and heart failure, antibiotic and diuretic therapies were performed, but elevated CRP of more than 6 mg/dl persisted. An apical type of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy-like structure was observed in echocardiography. On the 18 hospital day, he died suddenly of fatal arrhythmia, and infected apical left vent...

UNLABELLED Infective endocarditis in hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy is rare. Management of this disease is challenging due to the unique features of dynamic pressure gradient over the left ventricular outflow tract and its unpredictable interaction with the management of sepsis. The added complexity of infective endocarditis further complicates an already difficult situation. A 72-year...

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a fatal neuromuscular disorder caused by mutations in the Dmd gene. In addition to skeletal muscle wasting, DMD patients develop cardiomyopathy, which significantly contributes to mortality. Antisense oligonucleotides (AOs) are a promising DMD therapy, restoring functional dystrophin protein by exon skipping. However, a major limitation with current AOs is t...

Carnitine deficiency syndrome is a rare and potentially fatal but treatable metabolic disorder. I present a 6-year-old girl with primary systemic carnitine deficiency (SCD) proved by very low plasma carnitine level. Her major clinical features included neonatal metabolic acidosis, epilepsy, recurrent infections, acute encephalopathy, and dilated cardiomyopathy with heart failure before 4 years ...

Clinical and pathologic findings are presented in 14 patients (six newly reported, eight described previously), all children ranging in age from 6 to 24 months, with a clinicopathologic syndrome termed "infantile cardiomyopathy with histiocytoid change in cardiac muscle cells." This syndrome is manifested clinically by severe, eventually fatal cardiac arrhythmias, and is characterized pathologi...