Tumoral heart involvement in middle-aged woman with documented sternal chondrosarcoma

We describe the case of a 47-year-old woman with a history of sternotomy and insertion of a sternal prosthesis six months prior to admission due to sternal chondrosarcoma. The patient was admitted with dyspnea and chest discomfort, which had increased twenty days before admission. Echocardiography showed moderate pericardial effusion with moderate right ventricular enlargement and dysfunction and large gelatinous mass in the right atrium, which had protruded to the right ventricle through the inflow va!ve. Unfortunately, the patient died before any intervention. Final echocardiography revealed a reduction in the size of the mass, confirming that the patient's death occurred secondary to metastatic pulmonary emboli

Assessment of statistical relationship of ejection time and acceleration time with the severity of valvular aortic stenosis

Valvular aortic stenosis is a relatively common disease among valvular heart diseases and can be rheumatic, degenerative or congenital. Evaluation of the severity of the disease is sometimes challenging and problematic. Besides, the use of more parameters of non-invasive methods for the assessment of valvular disease and its severity seems attractive and helpful. Transthoracic echocardiography [TTE] is an appropriate modality for the evaluation of the aortic valve. In this study, TTE was performed for 80 patients with valvular aortic stenosis. The goals were to assess the statistical relationships between ejection time [ET] and acceleration time [AT] and their ratio [AT/ET] with the four traditional parameters of the echocardiographic severity of aortic valvular stenosis [aortic jet velocity, aortic valve area, mean pressure gradient and LVOT VTI/aortic VTI ratio]. There was a meaningful relationship between adjusted ET with the four above-mentioned parameters, d. ET [ET-adjusted ET according to heart rate and stroke volume] was inversely related with the aortic valve area [calculated with continuity equation]. AT/ET was significantly correlated with the four mentioned parameters. The regression equations were calculated. The cut-off value of AT/ET for the echocardiographic diagnosis of severe valvular stenosis was 0.36 [with 95% level of confidence]