The study was supported by Novartis.

No abstract

We report a 49-year old female who presented with ST elevation myocardial infarction, in whom thrombolysis and coronary angioplasty failed to perfuse the myocardium. She was unsuitable for emergency coronary artery bypass grafting surgery due to the interval elapsed between the myocardial infarction, thrombolysis and large infracted myocardium. Ventricular-assisted device support for a bridge to recovery or transplantation is a widely accepted treatment modality; however, in this case, it was unadvisable due to the extent of the infarcted myocardium and the risk of suturing outflow ports into the infracted myocardium. The patient's condition was stabilized with cardiac inotropic support, intra-aortic balloon counter pulsation and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation as a last resort until a heart became available for transplantation. The patient received successful orthotopic heart transplantation 4 days after her initial presentation and her postoperative recovery was uneventful.

SUMMARYA 71-year-old man presented with shortness of breath and tachycardia along with systemic symptoms of weight loss and lethargy. A pulmonary embolus was the initial suspected diagnosis but through extensive investigations a rarer cause of his symptoms was identified. This case demonstrates the importance of cardiac imaging in the assessment and non-invasive tissue characterisation of a suspected cardiac tumour; in our case, this was subsequently confirmed by careful histological/ immunocytochemical evaluation of the pericardial effusion as a primary cardiac B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, thus enabling appropriate management leading to an excellent clinical outcome. BACKGROUND