patients with syndrome x coronary disease represent a heterogeneous group of patients. medical treatment with dilators and calcium channel blockers are not very effective. we evaluated the use of transmyocardial laser revascularization (tmlr) in treating 5 patients with this syndrome. between may 2002 to december 2005, 5 patients with cardiac syndrome x (mean age of 49.7 years) underwent tmlr. ...

BACKGROUND Transesophageal echocardiography is widely used in cardiac surgery. Transesophageal echocardiography probe insertion and manipulation can injure the esophagus. CASE PRESENTATION A 76-year-old Asian man was admitted to our hospital for coronary artery bypass graft revascularization surgery. A right carotid endarterectomy was successfully performed 2 days before coronary artery bypas...

Background: In the radiotherapy of patients with esophagus and breast cancer, the heart receives a significant dose of radiation that might cause heart complications. Thefore, the aim of the current study was to evaluate the effects of esophagus and left breast cancer radiotherapy on the cardiac function and to determine the relationship between the dosimetric parameters and ejection fraction (...

Extrinsic compression of the left atrium is a potentially life-threatening but unusual cause of congestive heart failure. Achalasia is a motility disorder characterized by impaired relaxation of the lower esophageal sphincter and dilation of the distal two-thirds of the esophagus. We report only the third known case in the world literature of massive left atrial compression by a dilated esophag...

BACKGROUND Left atrioesophageal fistula is a devastating complication of atrial fibrillation ablation. There is no standard approach for avoiding this complication, which is caused by thermal injury during ablation. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the course of the esophagus and the temperature within the esophagus during pulmonary vein antrum isolation (PVAI) and correlate these ...

INTRODUCTION Although rare, the atrioesophageal fistula is one of the most feared complications in radiofrequency catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation due to the high risk of mortality. OBJECTIVE This is a prospective controlled study, performed during regular radiofrequency catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation, to test whether esophageal displacement by handling the transesophageal e...

A 47-year-old man with squeezing nature chest pain visited the emergency department. His heart sounds were normal without murmurs, and no history of cardiovascular risk factors or previous heart disease. Initial electrocardiogram showed sinus tachycardia with elevation of ST segment in pre-cordial leads, and he complained of continuous chest pain. Emergent coronary angiography was performed but...

A 36-year-old male patient with no remarkable medical history was admitted to our hospital for a health check up. On chest radiography, bilateral aortic notches at the level of aortic arch were shown suggesting aortic arch anomaly without any clinical symptoms. Two aortic arches were almost same-in-size on suprasternal view of transthoracic echocardiography. In addition, multidetector computed ...

Contraindications to transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) include various esophageal pathologies, but compression of the esophagus by vertebral osteophytes is not listed in the current American Society of Echocardiography guidelines. We report a case of diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) in an 81-year-old man who had incidentally been found to have extrinsic esophageal compressio...

Congenital variations and anomalies of the aortic arch are important entity in vascular imaging. Most them asymptomatic. About 30-40% presents with tracheo-oesophageal symptoms like dyspnea dysphagia. A 27 year-old female presented persistent dysphagia for 6 months duration cause was right sided aberrant left subcalvian artery from Kommerell’s diverticulum. The diagnosis made through combinatio...