IntroductionTetralogy of Fallot is one of the most common forms of cyanotic congenital heart disease and in the absence of surgical correction it has an elevated early mortality, with most patients dying in childhood.The authors reported this case because of the unusual course of an uncorrected tetralogy of Fallot. There are only a few reports of patients with an uncorrected tetralogy of Fallot who reach an advanced age and to the best of our knowledge this is the first case report of a possible endocarditis in a patient with an uncorrected tetralogy of Fallot who is older than 70 years.Case presentationThe authors present a case of a 72-year-old Caucasian woman with uncorrected tetralogy of Fallot who was admitted with fever and heart failure to our Cardiology Department with possible infective endocarditis.ConclusionsThe longevity of this patient is probably due to the association between a large ventricular septal defect, a balanced subpulmonary stenosis and to the presence of systemic hypertension. After empiric antibiotic therapy, the patient was discharged and no surgical intervention was performed due to her previous benign evolution.
Holt-Oram syndrome is clinically characterized by morphological abnormalities of the upper limbs and congenital cardiac defects. Although the disease is congenital, the diagnosis may only be made later in life. It is a rare autosomal dominant disorder, caused by a mutation in the TBX5 gene located on chromosome 12, but sporadic cases have also been reported. We describe the case of a 75-year-old man with known morphological alterations of the upper limbs since birth and congenital cardiac defect (atrial septal defect), who later in life also manifested with advanced atrioventricular block.
Left ventricular pseudoaneurysms and true aneurysms are two possible complications of myocardial infarction. However, while pseudoaneuryms require urgent surgical resection, true aneuryms can often be managed medically, making imperative an accurate diagnosis.The authors describe a case of a delayed rupture of a true aneurysm that was contained and gave rise to a pseudoaneurysm inside of a true aneurysm. The echocardiography allowed the differential diagnosis for a timely surgical intervention which resulted in the patient’s full recovery.
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