Two Cases of Caseous Calcification of the Mitral Annulus

Caseous mitral annular calcification describes a heavy calcification of the mitral annulus with central liquefaction. This rare variant of mitral annular calcification may resemble an intracardiac tumor, abscess, vegetation, or thrombus, a resemblance that often leads to unnecessary surgery. Typical echocardiographic findings include a large, round, bright echogenic mass with a central echolucent area. It is known to have a benign clinical outcome, and it is thus managed conservatively. Because this entity is not well known and has only rarely been described, we report two cases of mitral annular calcification encountered at our institution. The first patient was an elderly woman with exertional dyspnea who was found to have a solitary pulmonary nodule on plain chest radiography. This was determined to represent caseous calcification of the mitral annulus. The other patient was an elderly woman who had a history of cerebral embolic infarction. She did not have an intracardiac thrombus, but she did have caseous mitral annular calcification. Both patients were managed conservatively.

A Case of Right Coronary Artery Hematoma Detected by Echocardiography after Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

A 69-year-old man was admitted to undergo percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for chronic total occlusion of right coronary artery. He had diabetes mellitus, stable angina pectoris. Diagnostic coronary angiography demonstrated proximal total occlusion of right coronary artery. PCI was failed due to failure of balloon passage. Echocardiography was performed after PCI and thickened epicardial tissue at right atrioventricular groove was noted. It was highly echogenic and localized along the course of mid right coronary artery. In following echocardiogram after 12 days, the size of echogenic mass was decreased from 3.4 cmx2.6 cm to 1.7 cmx0.7 cm and we could conclude it was right coronary artery hematoma associated with PCI.