Congenital or acquired communication between the left ventricle and the right atrium is known as the Gerbode defect, which is rarely diagnosed since the defect is very unusual and for this reason often misinterpreted as an eccentric tricuspid regurgitation jet.The entity and reason of the defect is unknown to many physicians, so that profound knowledge and a careful and meticulous echocardiogram are necessary in order to prevent misinterpretation of this defect as a pulmonary hypertension.We report the case of a 76-year-old Austrian woman who developed such a Gerbode defect after a recent bioprosthetic aortic valve replacement.
The syndrome of "left ventricular ballooning" summarizes an acute onset of transient extensive akinesia of several segments (apical, mid-ventricular) of the left ventricle, without significant lesions on the coronary angiogram, accompanied by chest symptoms, electrocardiographic changes, and limited release of cardiac markers disproportionate to the extent of akinesia. Initially, the vast majority of cases has been reported among Japanese population. Emotional or physical stress or other preceding triggering factors might play a key role in this reversible form of cardiomyopathy, but the precise etiology remains unknown. We describe a case of a 52-year-old woman with posttraumatic stress disorder after cerebral bleeding presenting with an atypical form of left ventricular ballooning ("midventricular ballooning") syndrome.
A 34-year-old patient with a short history of severe hypertension was admitted to our hospital. Considering the young age and the severity of hypertension, we investigated the most common causes of secondary hypertension. Exposure to a single dose of an ACE inhibitor resulted in a rapid decline of the renal function. Further MRIrevealed a tight stenosis of both renal arteries closely to the ostium. In young patients, the most common cause of bilateral renal artery stenosis might be expected to be fibromuscular dysplasia. After recovery of renal function, invasive angiography, however, confirmed severe atherosclerotic lesion of both renal arteries. Therefore, angioplasty of both renal arteries was performed as a staged procedure. Hence, renal function showed rapid improvement and the patient had to be treated with a combination of a low-dose calcium antagonist and valsartan and especially a high-intensity statin.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.