An unusual cardiac mass resolving with antitubercular treatment.

We present an interesting case of a 2½-year-old child with Tetrology of Fallot with a large intracardiac mass in the left ventricle presenting with fever and bilateral stroke, that resolving with antitubercular therapy alone.

Primary treatment of kawasaki disease with corticosteroids.

Kawasaki disease (KD), is the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children in the developed world. The use of aspirin and intravenous immunoglobulin as the initial therapy in KD is the standard of care, as they reduce the incidence of coronary artery aneurysms, the major cardiac morbidity from this disease. The place of corticosteroids in the initial therapy is; however, controversial. We describe the course of a one-year-old child with Kawasaki disease who was treated with aspirin and corticosteroids as the initial therapy, and discuss pertinent issues.

Ruptured cardiac angiosarcoma with pulmonary metastases: a rare disease with a common (mis)diagnosis!

In Indian settings pulmonary tuberculosis remains the most common diagnosis in a patient presenting with constitutional symptoms, hemoptysis and lung opacities. We describe a case report of a fifty-year-old woman who was receiving empirical anti-tubercular drugs for a metastatic illness to lungs arising from a primary angiosarcoma in the right atrium. This rare entity was misdiagnosed and typical echocardiographic findings suggested this diagnosis.

Early prediction of left ventricular systolic dysfunction in patients of asymptomatic chronic severe rheumatic mitral regurgitation using tissue Doppler and strain rate imaging.

AIMS: Identification of subclinical left ventricular (LV) dysfunction in patients with rheumatic mitral regurgitation (MR) facilitates optimal surgical results and better postoperative LV function. This study is designed to assess the role of tissue Doppler and strain rate (SR) imaging in early detection of LV systolic dysfunction in patients with asymptomatic chronic severe MR. METHODS AND RESULTS: Patients were studied under four groups. Group I: Normal subject (n = 25). Group II: Patients with chronic severe MR with ejection fraction (EF) > 60% and end-systolic dimension (ESD) ≤ 40 mm (n=23). Group III: Patients with chronic severe MR with EF ≥ 60% and ESD 41-50 mm (n = 27). Group IV: Patients with chronic severe MR with EF < 60% with any ESDs (n = 25). With decrease in EF and increase in ESD there was decrease in systolic velocity and increased in precontraction time and contraction time was noted. The tissue Doppler systolic indices between groups were statistically significant P < 0.05 and showed significant correlation value r = 0.45 between groups. Strain (S) and SR significantly decreased with decrease in EF and increase in ESD P < 0.05, r = 0.45 between different groups. CONCLUSION: Our study showed significant correlation between tissue Doppler systolic indices and SR imaging with EF and ESD.