Atrial Fibrillation Ablation Should Be First-Line Therapy in Heart Failure Patients: CON.

Heart failure (HF) and atrial fibrillation (AF) are the epidemics of the twenty-first century. These often coexist and are the cause of major morbidity and mortality. Management of these patients has posed a significant challenge to the medical community. Guideline-directed pharmacologic therapy for heart failure is important; however, there is no clear consensus on how best to treat AF with concomitant HF. In this article, we provide an in-depth review of the management of AF in patients with HF and provide insight as to why catheter ablation should not be the first line of therapy in this population.

Update on atrial fibrillation.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia with a substantial effect on individual morbidity and mortality as well as healthcare expenditure. The management of AF is complex and fraught with many uncertain and contentious issues. We have seen substantial progress in AF management in the last two decades including better understanding of the epidemiology, genomics, monitoring, drug and non-pharmacological treatment of the arrhythmia, its complications and stroke risk reduction. In this review, we present a comprehensive discussion on AF with emphasis on most recent updates.

Recurrent right ventricular cardiac myxoma in a patient with Carney complex: a case report.

INTRODUCTION: Carney complex is a multiple neoplasia syndrome involving cardiac, endocrine, neural and cutaneous tumors with a variety of pigmented skin lesions. It has an autosomal dominant mode of inheritance. Approximately 7% of cardiac myxomas are related to the Carney complex. Myxomas that occur as part of the Carney complex affect both sexes with equal frequency. Cardiac myxomas with Carney complex are reported mostly in the left side of the heart and are less common on the right side. As per our review, this is the first reported case of Carney complex with right ventricle cardiac myxoma. CASE PRESENTATION: We present a rare case of recurrent cardiac myxoma in a patient later diagnosed to have Carney complex. A 46-year-old Caucasian man with a history of thyroid hyperplasia came to out-patient cardiology department with new onset atrial fibrillation. A transthoracic echocardiogram revealed a right ventricular mass attached to his interventricular septum, which was later seen on a transesophageal echocardiogram and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. He underwent resection of the ventricular mass which on pathology revealed myxoma. He later developed skin lesions, pituitary adenoma and Sertoli cell tumor suggesting Carney complex. Two years later he developed a new mass within his right atrium which was later resected. CONCLUSIONS: Carney complex is a rare autosomal dominant disease with variable penetrance. Since it involves multiple organs, patients diagnosed with Carney complex should undergo serial endocrine workup, neural assessments, echocardiograms and testicular ultrasounds. Of the total number of cases of Carney complex, 65% are linked to PRKAR1A gene mutation. It is important for clinicians to be cognizant of a link between cardiac myxoma and Carney complex. The use of multi-imaging modalities allows better delineation of the mass before planned resection. Carney complex-related cardiac myxoma comprises 7% of all cardiac myxomas. Right ventricular cardiac myxomas are rare. This case report is the first to describe right ventricular myxoma with Carney complex.

Mega-epsilon waves on 12-lead ECG--just another case of arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy?

Epsilon wave, the post-excitation small squiggles at the beginning of ST segment that first named by Fontaine, is a well-known ECG phenomenon frequently associated with arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C). Epsilon waves are caused by post excitation of the myocytes in the right ventricle due to myocardial scaring. Increasing evidence suggests that cardiac sarcoidosis might produce the pathological substrate required for production of epsilon waves. Therefore differentiating these two entities is of paramount clinical importance. Here we report a case demonstrating mega-epsilon wave, right ventricular dilatation and inducible ventricular tachycardia (VT) that was initially diagnosed as ARVD/C by the Task Force Criteria. However after a thorough evaluation, diagnosis of cardiac sarcoidosis was confirmed by the evidence of non-caseating granulomas from endomycardial biopsy.