Catastrophic systemic embolization from a left atrial myxoma.

We report the fatal course of a left atrial myxoma: its systemic embolization to the coronary, cerebral, renal, and peripheral vascular beds in a 39-year-old woman resulted in rapid clinical deterioration, multiorgan failure, and death. Among reported cases of left atrial myxoma, this degree of embolic burden is exceedingly rare. In addition to reporting the patient's case, we discuss the presentation and diagnosis of possible intracardiac sources of systemic emboli.

Atrial myxoma in a patient with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Atrial myxoma is the most common primary cardiac tumor. Patients with atrial myxoma typically present with obstructive, embolic, or systemic symptoms; asymptomatic presentation is very rare. To our knowledge, isolated association of atrial myxoma with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy has been reported only once in the English-language medical literature. We report the case of an asymptomatic 71-year-old woman with known hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in whom a left atrial mass was incidentally identified on cardiac magnetic resonance images. After surgical excision of the mass and partial excision of the left atrial septum, histopathologic analysis confirmed the diagnosis of atrial myxoma. The patient was placed on preventive implantable cardioverter-defibrillator therapy and remained asymptomatic. The management of asymptomatic cardiac myxoma is a topic of debate, because no reports definitively favor either conservative or surgical measures.

Hospitalists and intensivists in the medical ICU: a prospective observational study comparing mortality and length of stay between two staffing models.

BACKGROUND: A shortage of critical care specialists or intensivists, coupled with expanding United States critical care needs, mandates identification of alternate qualified physicians for intensive care unit (ICU) staffing. OBJECTIVE: To compare mortality and length of stay (LOS) of medical ICU patients cared for by a hospitalist or an intensivist-led team. DESIGN: Prospective observational study. SETTING: Urban academic community hospital affiliated with a major regional academic university. PATIENTS: Consecutive medical patients admitted to a hospitalist ICU team (n = 828) with selective intensivist consultation or an intensivist-led ICU teaching team (n = 528). MEASUREMENTS: Endpoints were ICU and in-hospital mortality and LOS, adjusted for patient differences with logistic and linear regression models and propensity scores. RESULTS: The odds ratio adjusted for disease severity for in-hospital mortality was 0.8 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.49, 1.18; P = 0.23) and ICU mortality was 0.8 (95% CI: 0.51, 1.32; P = 0.41), referent to the hospitalist team. The adjusted LOS was similar between teams (hospital LOS difference 0.9 days, P = 0.98; ICU LOS difference 0.3 days, P = 0.32). Mechanically ventilated patients with intermediate illness severity had lower hospital LOS (10.6 vs 17.8 days, P < 0.001) and ICU LOS (7.2 vs 10.6 days, P = 0.02), and a trend towards decreased in-hospital mortality (15.6% vs 27.5%, P = 0.10) in the intensivist-led group. CONCLUSIONS: The adjusted mortality and LOS demonstrated no statistically significant difference between hospitalist and intensivist-led ICU models. Mechanically ventilated patients with intermediate illness severity showed improved LOS and a trend towards improved mortality when cared for by an intensivist-led ICU teaching team.

Bioprosthetic mitral valve thrombosis less than one year after replacement and an ablative MAZE procedure: a case report.

Occurrence of bioprosthetic valve thrombosis less than a year after replacement is very uncommon. Here, we describe a case of a 57 year old male, who presented 10 months after receiving a bioprosthetic mitral valve replacement with a two week history of dyspnea on exertion, worsening orthopnea and decreased exercise tolerance. Echocardiography revealed severe mitral regurgitation (MR), thrombosis of the posterior mitral leaflet, left atrial (LA) mural thrombus and a depressed left ventricular ejection fraction of twenty-five percent. Given severe clot burden and decompensated heart failure (New York Heart Association - NYHA class III) repeat sternotomy was done to replace the bioprosthetic mitral valve and remove LA mural thrombus. MR was resolved postoperatively. This brief report further reviews promoting factors, established guidelines and management strategies of bioprosthetic valve thrombosis.

Myocardial viability assessment by PET: (82)Rb defect washout does not predict the results of metabolic-perfusion mismatch.

UNLABELLED: PET is a sensitive technique for the identification of viable myocardial tissue in patients with coronary disease. Metabolic assessment with (18)F-FDG is considered the gold standard for assessment of viability before surgical revascularization. Prior research has suggested that viability may be assessed with washout of (82)Rb between early and late resting images. Our objective was to determine whether assessment of myocardial viability with (82)Rb washout is reliable when compared with PET using (18)F-FDG. METHODS: We performed PET for 194 patients referred for PET (18)F-FDG/(82)Rb to assess viability for clinical indications. We included 151 patients with resting defects >10% of the left ventricle (LV) (n = 159 defects). Patients with smaller resting (82)Rb defects (<10% LV) were excluded for the purpose of this study. PET images acquired with (82)Rb and (18)F-FDG defined viability by the mismatch between metabolism and perfusion ((18)F-FDG >125% of (82)Rb uptake in the (82)Rb defect). Evidence of viability with (82)Rb was assessed by the presence of (i) severity: (82)Rb counts in the defect >50% of (82)Rb in the normal zone of the resting PET images; (ii) washout: decrease of (82)Rb counts in the defect from early to late resting (82)Rb images <17% between the first 90-s image and the final 300-s image; or (iii) combined severity and washout criteria, which required positive criteria for (i) and (ii) to indicate viability. RESULTS: Prevalence of viability by (18)F-FDG/(82)Rb criteria was 50% (n = 79). Severity criteria yielded a sensitivity of 76% and a specificity of 17%, washout criteria yielded a sensitivity of 81% and a specificity of 23%, and both criteria had a sensitivity of 63% and a specificity of 32%. Positive and negative predictive values were poor for all criteria. No correlation existed between (82)Rb washout and (18)F-FDG-(82)Rb mismatch (r(2) = 0.00). Multiple receiver-operating-characteristic plots showed very poor discrimination despite varying criteria for viability by (82)Rb (severity from 50% to 60% of normal zone, washout from 12% to 17%). CONCLUSION: (82)Rb washout from early to late resting images, combined with quantitative severity of the resting (82)Rb defect, did not yield results equivalent to PET (18)F-FDG-(82)Rb mismatch and may not accurately assess myocardial viability.