A survival case in a severe amlodipine intoxication.

Calcium channel blockers (CCBs) are prescribed in a wide variety of cardiovascular conditions. Nevertheless, they remain a major cause of cardiovascular drug overdose that often leads to a lethal outcome. We report the case of an intoxication with amlodipine, which caused severe hypotension, in a young woman. The patient was initially treated with fluids, calcium gluconate, and Dobutamine without effect. She then received hyperinsulinemia euglycemia therapy. A rise in blood pressure (BP) was observed two hours after insulin was started. The next day, the insulin infusion was stopped and seven days later the patient was discharged from the hospital after psychiatric consultation. The positive inotropic effect of insulin therapy in our patient supports previous findings that suggest its use as a first-line therapy in the management of CCBs overdose.

The added value of real-time three-dimensional echocardiography in the diagnosis of supravalvar mitral ring: case report and review of the literature.

Supravalvular mitral stenosis is a rare condition characterized by an abnormal ridge, with one or two orifices, covering and obstructing the mitral valve. Preoperative identification of the supravalvular ring is the target for obtaining good surgical results. Two-dimensional echocardiogram and transesophageal echocardiography both failed in reaching this objective. In this case, we showed that three-dimensional echocardiogram is a new technique that provides additional and more accurate echocardiographic characterization of congenital supravalvular mitral stenosis.

Pharmacological therapy in children with nodal reentry tachycardia: when, how and how long to treat the affected patients.

Atrio-ventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT) is a rare supra-ventricular tachycardia (SVT) in children and becomes more frequent in adolescents. Most of children with an AVNRT have a healthy heart thus rarely experiencing severe symptoms. Because of haemodynamic instability or risk of complications, recurrences of SVT may require a chronic therapy. Interruption of dual atrio-ventricular nodal physiology is the basic mechanism to terminate AVNRT. This may be achieved by using anti-arrhythmic drugs or through Radiofrequency catheter ablation (RF). We aim to review the literature on the use of anti-arrhythmic drugs for the management of AVNRT in children aged more than 1 year and discuss the recommended dosages and the duration of a long term therapy. In the absence of comparative trials of risks and benefits between pharmacological therapy and RF and because of a greater clinical experience with anti-arrhythmic drugs, these last but not the least continue to be first-line therapy in the management of most SVT in children. Trials on pharmacotherapy in children with SVT in general and AVNRT in particular are lacking, use of anti-arrhythmic drugs being extrapolated from adult literature. Although Adenosine is becoming more used since it is the safest and effective drug in the acute setting, Digoxin continue to be the drug of first choice. Beta-blockers and Class I anti-arrhythmic are the second choice drugs with Flecainide being the preferred anti-arrhythmic drug for treatment failures. Amiodarone is rarely used as a chronic therapy in resistant cases. With the new advances in the RF technology, this therapy is becoming more safe and effective for AVNRT in children. Therefore, additional well-designed controlled trials are needed to further evaluate the comparative efficacy of anti-arrhythmic drugs in the management of AVNRT in children, as well as to evaluate dosing and toxicity in various age groups and determine the duration of a chronic therapy as compared to a potential RF.

Percutaneous mitral valvuloplasty in patients with low cardiac output at high surgical risk.

Among 1146 patients undergoing percutaneous mitral valvuloplasty for symptomatic mitral stenosis, 8 (4 men and women) were at high risk for surgery on the basis of the New York Heart Association functional class IV (n=8), severe pulmonary hypertension (n=5). All these patients aged 30+/-23.6 years had signs of right heart failure, high echocardiographic score (9.6+/-3.6) and low mitral valve area (0.50+/-0.19 cm(2)). The procedure resulted in an increase in mitral valve area (1.55+/-0.17 cm(2)) with a concomitant reduction in pulmonary artery systolic pressure (58.7+/-9.9 mm Hg) and decrease in tricuspid regurgitation. At follow-up (mean 14+/-3 months), one patient with renal failure... presented with a mitral restenosis is scheduled for mitral valve replacement, two patients with severe tricuspid regurgitation required tricuspid annuloplasty. In conclusion, percutaneous mitral valvuloplasty is feasible and safe in patients at high surgical risk and can be considered as an acceptable alternative to surgery.