The challenge in diagnosing cardiac tumors to avoid unnecessary cardiac surgery.

Cardiac magnetic resonance in cardiac mass: Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) should be considered in the evaluation of patients with cardiac mass. Especially, when the diagnosis is not certain, CMR could provide paramount information that could be helpful for the decision on cardiac surgery.

Recurrent prosthetic valve endocarditis caused by Aspergillus delacroxii (formerly Aspergillus nidulans var. echinulatus).

We report Aspergillus delacroxii (formerly Aspergillus nidulans var. echinulatus) causing recurrent prosthetic valve endocarditis. The fungus was the sole agent detected during replacement of a mechanical aortic valve conduit due to abscess formation. Despite extensive surgery and anti-fungal treatment, the patient had a cerebral hemorrhage 4 months post-surgery prompting a diagnosis of recurrent prosthetic valve endocarditis and fungemia.

[Surgical thoracoscopic treatment of atrial fibrillation as an alternative to percutaneous radio frequency ablation]. / Torakoskopisk behandling af atrieflimren kan være et alternativ til perkutan radiofrekvensablation.

The prevalence of atrial fibrillation in the general population is 1-2% and ablation procedures have been introduced among some symptomatic patients on order to obtain sinus rythm. A surgical thoracoscopic procedure may be offered to patients in whom percutaneous procedures were unsuccessful. This paper describes the procedure and initial results from 21 patients operated at Aalborg University Hospital, Denmark. Six months post-operatively 15 of 20 patients had obtained sinus rythm. Systematic follow-up is missing in local hospitals, indicating the need for systematic reporting to a clinical database.