Rare surgical treatment of "asthma" with post-partum cardiomyopathy: case report and review of literature

We report the case of a 37-year-old woman who presented with severe persistent "asthma" requiring repeated courses of steroids and bronchodilators. Spirometry was suggestive of upper airway obstruction. Computerized tomography scan [CT] demonstrated a polypoid mass in the cervical trachea obstructing 90% of the lumen. Urgent tracheostomy was performed followed by bronchscopic excision of the mass. Histopathological diagnosis of schwannoma was confirmed using immunohistochemical markers. We found only 20 primary tracheal schwannoma cases previously reported in the English literature

Solitary arteriovenous hemangioma of the lung without fistula: report of a case and literature review

Arterio-venous hemangiomas [also called vascular malformations] are uncommon lesions in general and very rarely reported as solitary lung tumors with no evidence of fistula formation or clinical evidence of shunting. We report the case of a 49 year old Indian male who presented to our institution with a right hilar lung mass which was histologically proven to be a classical arterio-venous hemangioma [vascular malformation]. The patient did not have clinical or radiological evidence of fistula or shunts formation

Troponin I levels after coronary bypass operations in Aleppo, Syria

Biomarkers of myocardial injury are important tools in the diagnosis and management of patients with acute cardiovascular disease. cTnl levels measured 24 hours after cardiac surgery has been reported to be independently predictive of short and long term mortality. To evaluate the usefulness of cTnl as a marker of myocardial injury after CABG in our laboratory, we measured cTnl level after CABG operation at Al-Salam Hospital in Aleppo, Syria and correlated it with the morbidity and mortality outcome of this operation. Troponin I [cTnl] level was measured after coronary artery bypass grafting operations [CABG] at Al-Salam Hospital in Aleppo, Syria. Consecutive measurements were obtained prospectively in 333 such patients. The patients were divided into two groups: Group I with cTnl level less than 10 ng/ml [256 patients], and Group II with cTnl level more than 10 ng/ml [77 patients]. The two groups were similar in all aspects except for significantly more smoking, and more use of IMA graft in group I patients. There was a trend towards using off-pump technique [OPCAB] in Group I patients, but this difference was not statistically significant. Group II patients had significantly higher cardiac [13%] and non-cardiac [12%] complications than group I [4%, and 6.7% respectively]. Group II patients also had higher 30 day mortality [6.5%] than group I [0.4%]. The higher morbidity and mortality in group II was statistically significant even after adjusting for OPCAB and IMA differences. The sensitivity of cTnl test in our lab was 46%; the specificity 81%; the positive predictive value 31%; the negative predictive value 89%; and the relative risk of cTnl >10 ng/ml was 2.85. cTnl level is an important predictor of early morbidity and mortality after CABG operation

Troponin I levels after coronary bypass operations in Aleppo, Syria

Biomarkers of myocardial injury are important tools in the diagnosis and management of patients with acute cardiovascular disease. cTnI levels measured 24 hours after cardiac surgery has been reported to be independently predictive of short and long term mortality. To evaluate the usefulness of cTnI as a marker of myocardial injury after CABG in our laboratory, we measured cTnI level after CABG operation at Al-Salam Hospital in Aleppo, Syria and correlated it with the morbidity and mortality outcome of this operation. Troponin I [cTnI] level was measured after coronary artery bypass grafting operations [CABG] at Al-Salam Hospital in Aleppo, Syria. Consecutive measurements were obtained prospectively in 333 such patients. The patients were divided into two groups: Group I with cTnI level less than 10 ng/ml [256 patients], and Group II with cTnI level more than 10 ng/ml [77 patients]. The two groups were similar in all aspects except for significantly more smoking, and more use of IMA graft in group I patients. There was a trend towards using off-pump technique [OPCAB] in Group I patients, but this difference was not statistically significant. Results: Group II patients had significantly higher cardiac [13%] and non-cardiac [12%] complications than group I [4%, and 6.7% respectively]. Group II patients also had higher 30 day mortality [6.5%] than group I [0.4%]. The higher morbidity and mortality in group II was statistically significant even after adjusting for OPCAB and IMA differences. The sensitivity of cTnI test in our lab was 46%; the specificity 81%; the positive predictive value 31%; the negative predictive value 89%; and the relative risk of cTnI>10 ng/ml was 2.85. cTnI level is an important predictor of early morbidity and mortality after CABG operation