A 63 year old female presented to hospital with progressive exertional dyspnoea over a 6 month period. In the year preceding her admission, she reported an intercurrent history of abdominal pain, diarrhoea and weight loss. She was found to be hypoxic, the cause for which was initially unclear. A ventilation-perfusion scan identified a right-to-left shunt. Transoesophageal echocardiography (TOE)...

This case report was an attempt to present the importance of diagnostic echocardiography and closure of a patent foramen ovale in carcinoid heart disease. Herein, we present a case of a 48-year-old woman with a carcinoid metastasis presenting with tricuspid regurgitation, pulmonic stenosis, patent foramen ovale, and borderline left ventricular ejection fraction on an echocardiogram. Surgical in...

Deficiency of tryptophan with elevated serum serotonin and liver dysfunction are the prerequisites for the experimental production of cardiac lesions in the guinea pig model of carcinoid syndrome. To apply the above principles in human subjects with carcinoid disease, various indole markers were compared in patients with or without heart involvement, to a group of normal subjects. In the presen...

OBJECTIVES To describe the early and late outcomes of carcinoid patients undergoing surgical heart valve replacement. METHODS In a retrospective study, records of patients with symptomatic carcinoid heart disease referred for valve surgery between 1993 and 2010 at two academic centres were reviewed. The perioperative and postoperative outcomes were analysed. RESULTS Nineteen patients, with ...

A previously healthy 60-year-old woman presented with a 3-week history of fatigue and exertional dyspnea. Over the past year, she had experienced episodic wheezing, facial flushing, diarrhoea, and an unintentional 40-lb weight loss. On physical examination, she demonstrated venous telangiectasia in the malar region, mild peripheral cyanosis, and an elevated jugular venous pressure with a domina...

BACKGROUND Carcinoid tumor, benign, low-grade malignant, and high-grade malignant, can be associated with the release of vasoactive substances that cause symptoms including cutaneous flushing, diarrhea, and bronchospasm. In 50-60% of patients with carcinoid syndrome, the vasoactive substances cause fibrosis of the pulmonary and tricuspid heart valves which lead to regurgitation and right-sided ...

carcinoid tumor is a slow-growing type of neuroendocrine tumor, originating in the enterochromaffin cells and secreting mainly serotonin. the diagnosis is based on clinical symptoms, hormone levels, radiological and nuclear imaging, and histological confirmation. the clinical symptoms are characterized by flushing, diarrhea, abdominal pain, telangiectasia and/or bronchoconstriction. however, mo...

Eight cases of carcinoid heart disease associated with primary ovarian carcinoid tumour have been previously reported. A case is described in which rapid relief of all symptoms followed removal of an ovarian carcinoid argentaffin tumour. A diagnostic finding was the provocation offlushing by pressure on the ovarian mass on vaginal examination. Cardiological investigations, performed two and a h...

OBJECTIVES To study the applicability of a newly developed echocardiographic scoring system in the assessment of carcinoid valvular heart disease. BACKGROUND We investigated prospectively the development, progression and regression of carcinoid valvular heart disease in patients with carcinoid syndrome by serial echocardiography, correlating these features with urinary 5-HIAA levels and clini...

Neuroendocrine tumors of the small intestine are the most common causes of the carcinoid syndrome. Carcinoid heart disease occurs in more than half of the patients with the carcinoid syndrome. Patients with carcinoid heart disease who Received: December 5, 2016 Accepted after revision: February 10, 2017 Published online: March 2, 2017 Gregory Kaltsas Sector of Endocrinology, Department of Patho...