[Primary mesothelioma of the pericardium: diagnostic methods. A case report]. / Mesotelioma primitivo del pericardio: metodi diagnostici. Descrizione di un caso.

Clinical picture and diagnostic methods in a patient with primary pericardial mesothelioma are described. Echocardiography shows an intrapericardial mass in direct continuity with left ventricular wall. Magnetic resonance imaging is essential to define mass dimension and extension and show cardiac wall and contiguous tissues infiltration. The histological characteristics are defined by using TAC-guided needle biopsy and needle aspiration.

[An electro- and vectorcardiographic study of ventricular activation in scleroderma]. / Estudio electrovectocardiográfico de la activación ventricular en la esclerodermia.

Electrical ventricular activation was studied by means of electrocardiogram and vectorcardiogram in 62 patients, 55 women and 7 men, affected by systemic sclerosis of average disease duration of 10.3 years. 45% of the patients showed the "diffused form" of the disease and 55% the "limited form". The vectorcardiogram showed some alterations of the ventricular activation in 55% of the recorded cases. The previous electrocardiogram found only 18%. The alterations, which are more frequent in the diffuse form than in the limited one, are the presence of loss of forces in septal, lateral or inferior or combined areas and intraventricular conduction disorders as complete and incomplete right bundle branch block, left anterior subdivision block, left posterior subdivision block, or combination between incomplete right bundle branch block and left anterior or posterior subdivision block. The vectorcardiogram was more sensitive than the electrocardiogram in showing loss of forces, also in patients with the limited form of systemic sclerosis, when the electrocardiogram was normal. Moreover the vectorcardiogram is helpful to identify left posterior subdivision block. The vectorcardiographic investigation seems to be a useful complement of the electrocardiogram especially for the identification of cases with myocardial involvement that is clinically silent.

[Acute hepatic ischemia and cardiogenic shock in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy]. / Ischemia epatica acuta e shock cardiogeno in pazienti con miocardiopatia dilatativa.

A sharp and unusually high increase in the serum of glutamic-oxalacetic and glutamic-pyruvic transaminase and of lactic-dehydrogenase accompanied the terminal events, acute pulmonary edema with cardiogenic shock, in 2 patients suffering from chronic congestive heart failure caused by dilatative myocardiopathy. Experimental and clinical data raises the possibility that the considerable enzymic increase may be due to the combined effect of chronic stasis and acute ischemia on the liver.

[The P loop in atrioventricular septal defect. Embryologico-vectorcardiographic correlation]. / El asa P en el defecto del septum atrio-ventricular. Correlación embriológico-vectocardiográfia.

Atrial vectorcardiograms (vcg) were analysed in 23 patients with partial (n = 15) or complete (n = 8) forms of atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD). The rotation and the projection of the maximum left atrial vector (MLAV) on the frontal plane (FP) and on the horizontal plane (HP) were noted. To assess the possible influence of the degree of left-to-right shunting and the right atrial and right ventricular pressures on the rotation and MLAV projection, these vcg data were correlated with hemodynamic values obtained at the time of preoperative cardiac catheterization. Vcg characteristics of the patients were also compared with those of 25 healthy individuals. No significant differences were noted between the vcg of patients with the partial form and those with the complete form of AVSD. Also, there was no apparent influence of the hemodynamic values on the loop rotation or the MLAV projection in either plane among the patients. However, the MLAV showed a more posteriorly and superior location in the FP and HP than in normal subjects (p = 0.0001). Moreover, 67% of the cases showed a clockwise rotation of the loop in the HP and 33% in the FP; in contrast, normal subjects always showed a counterclockwise rotation in both planes. A more posterior and superior MLAV is consistent with direct observations in human embryos with AVSD which have shown that deficiencies of the posterior portion of the interventricular septum are the basic feature in all cases. The adaptation of the conductive tissue to such deficiency occurs in early phases of cardiac development.