Chagas Cardiomyopathy Presenting as Symptomatic Bradycardia: An Underappreciated Emerging Public Health Problem in the United States.

Chagas cardiomyopathy (CCM) is traditionally considered a disease restricted to areas of endemicity. However, an estimated 300,000 people living in the United States today have CCM, of which its majority is undiagnosed. We present a case of CCM acquired in an endemic area and detected in its early stage. A 42-year-old El Salvadoran woman presented with recurrent chest pain and syncopal episodes. Significant family history includes a sister in El Salvador who also began suffering similar episodes. Physical exam and ancillary studies were only remarkable for sinus bradycardia. The patient was diagnosed with symptomatic sinus bradycardia and a pacemaker was placed. During her hospital course, Chagas serology was ordered given the epidemiological context from which she came. With no other identifiable cause, CCM was the suspected etiology. This case highlights the underrecognized presence of Chagas in the United States and the economic and public health importance of its consideration in the etiological differential diagnosis of electrocardiographic changes among Latin American immigrants. While the United States is not considered an endemic area for Chagas disease, the influx of Latin American immigrants has created a new challenge to identify at-risk populations, diagnose suspected cases, and provide adequate treatment for this disease.

Loperamide Induced Life Threatening Ventricular Arrhythmia.

Loperamide is over-the-counter antidiarrheal agent acting on peripherally located µ opioid receptors. It is gaining popularity among drug abusers as opioid substitute. We report a case of a 46-year-old male that was presented after cardiac arrest. After ruling out ischemia, cardiomyopathy, pulmonary embolism, central nervous system pathology, sepsis, and other drug toxicity, we found out that patient was using around 100 mg of Loperamide to control his chronic diarrhea presumably because of irritable bowel syndrome for last five years and consumed up to 200 mg of Loperamide daily for last two days before the cardiac arrest. We hypothesize that the patient's QTc prolongation and subsequent cardiac arrest are due to Loperamide toxicity. Patient experienced gradual resolution of tachyarrhythmia and gradual decrease in QTc interval during hospitalization which supports the evidence of causal relationship between Loperamide overdose and potentially fatal arrhythmias. It also provided the clue that patient may have congenital long QT syndrome which was unmasked by Loperamide causing ventricular arrhythmias. This case adds one more pearl in the literature to support that Loperamide overdose related cardiac toxicity does exist and it raises concerns over Loperamide abuse in the community.

First experience with a novel robotic remote catheter system: Amigo™ mapping trial.

INTRODUCTION: Amigo™ (Catheter Robotics, Inc., Mount Olive, NJ) remote catheter system (RCS) was designed to provide a simple and relatively inexpensive system for remote catheter manipulation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance and safety of Amigo in mapping the right side of the heart. METHODS AND RESULTS: This non-randomized, prospective clinical trial was conducted at 13 sites (NCT: #01139814). Using the controller, a mapping catheter was moved to eight pre-specified locations in a specific sequence: right ventricular apex, mid-right ventricular septum, right ventricular outflow tract, His-bundle position, coronary sinus ostium, high right atrium, lateral tricuspid annulus, and low lateral right atrium. The pre-specified efficacy endpoint was to achieve 80 % successful navigation to all locations. Time to each location, location accuracy, and quality of contact were confirmed by imaging and specific criteria for electrograms and pacing thresholds. In 181 patients, a total of 1,396 of 1,448 (96 %) locations were successfully mapped with all protocol criteria met (one-sided p value < 0.0001). The median time to move the catheter to a new location was 24 s. The Amigo-related major complication rate was 0 % which was significantly less than the predefined endpoint of 4 % (one-sided p = 0.003). CONCLUSION: We found the Amigo RCS to be safe and effective for positioning a mapping catheter at sites within the right atrium and ventricle.

First robotic endoscopic epicardial isolation of the pulmonary veins with microwave energy in a patient in chronic atrial fibrillation.

The pulmonary veins have been demonstrated to play an important role in generating atrial fibrillation. We report the first successful endoscopic epicardial isolation of the pulmonary veins in a patient with permanent atrial fibrillation, along with a 1-year follow-up. The procedure consisted of making a conduction block around the pulmonary veins with a flexible microwave energy delivery probe. The probe was placed endoscopically on the left atrial epicardium with the aid of robotic instruments.