Primary intimal sarcoma of the pulmonary artery is a rare disease and there has been no report of any case originating from the pulmonary valve. Recently we experienced a 62 year-old female patient who had a primary intimal sarcoma of the pulmonary valve with distal metastasis. She was brought to medical attention due to exertional dyspnea facial edema productive coughing and general weakness for 1 month. Chest CT and echocardi-ography suggest an acute pulmonary thromboembolism or tumor. Exploration showed a large polypoid mass arising from the pulmonary leaflets and multiple masses on distal pulmonary arteries. We replaced the pulmonary valve and reconstructed the pulmonary artery. She received radiotherapy 1 month postoperatively and now 4 months after surgery she has begun receiving chemotherapy.
Cough ; Drug Therapy ; Dyspnea ; Edema ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Pulmonary Artery ; Pulmonary Embolism ; Pulmonary Valve* ; Radiotherapy ; Rare Diseases ; Sarcoma* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

No abstract available.
Mitral Valve* ; Rupture*

Os subfibulare is a accessory bone arround the lateral maleolus, but it is different from many other accessory bones in foot and ankle in its development related to trauma and frequent symptoms of ankle instability. Accessory bone is a developmental anomaly which fails to unite to main secondary ossification center and usually asymptomatic. But os subfibulare is developed by recurrent ankle sprains in younger age or non-union of avulsion fracture of anterior talofibular ligament and causes instability of ankle. We experienced two cases of symptomatic os subfibulare in adolecents and report them with review of literatures.
Ankle ; Ankle Injuries ; Foot ; Ligaments

BACKGROUND: The purpose of carotid endarterectomy is to prevent stroke regardless of past neurologic events. Major concern in the carotid endarterectomy is the inadequate blood flow of ipsilateral hemisphere during clamping of the carotid artery. It is well known that internal carotid artery back pressure means collateral cerebral blood flow. Our study is intended to determine the guideline of shunt placement according to the carotid back pressure and electroencephalographic finding. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The study population comprised of 16 consecutive patients who underwent carotid endarterectomy for carotid stenosis in our institution between from February 1996 to March 1999. There were 14 men and 2 women between the ages of 56 and 78 years(mean age 66.25+/-6.53 years). The carotid stenosis in the operative site was ranged from 61% to 95%(mean 73.8+/-12.33%) and the mean carotid stenosis of the contralateral side was 60.99+/-25.03%. During the operation, electroencephalographic monitoring was taken in all cases. The internal carotid artery back pressure was measured to estimate the collateral cerebral blood flow, and in all patients with back pressure below 40 mmHg(11 patients) and patients with complete occulusion of contralateral carotid artery(2 patients), an internal shunt was installed. RESULT: One postoperative death occurred in a patient with large evolving cerebral infarction and severe ipsilateral carotid stenosis, who underwent emergent carotid endarterectomy. The cause of death was hemorrhagic infarction in the corresponding cerebral territory. We observed that immediate operation after a major stroke negatively influenced the postoperative outcome. No intraoperative ischemic neurologic complication developed. During the follow-up upto now(mean follow-up 21.5+/-11.85 months), there has been no early or late recurrence of stroke except one patient ,in whom cerebral infarction developed in the contralateral side on the first postoperative day. CONCLUSION: At least 4-6 weeks stabilization after a stroke is recommended for surgical management. The carotid endarterectomy is an effective surgical intervention for prevention of anticipated stroke and can be performed safely if an internal shunt is used in patients whose internal carotid arterial back pressure is below 40 mmHg.
Carotid Arteries ; Carotid Artery, Internal ; Carotid Stenosis* ; Cause of Death ; Cerebral Infarction ; Constriction ; Endarterectomy ; Endarterectomy, Carotid* ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Infarction ; Male ; Recurrence ; Stroke

Spontaneous non-traumatic rupture of thoracic aorta is a vary rare, life-threatening condition for which emergency surgery is indicated. We eport a case of spontaneous aortic rupture diagnosed with computed tomogram and transesophageal echocardiogram which was successfully treated by emergency hemi-arch replacement.
Aorta, Thoracic* ; Aortic Rupture ; Emergencies ; Rupture*

A 61-year-old man presented with chest pain and ST elevation, and he underwent coronary angiography under the impression of acute myocardial infarction. Coronary intervention under intra-aortic balloon pumping was necessary due to his hemodynamic instability from the acute total occlusion of a large obtuse marginal branch. In spite of successful intervention, the cardiogenic shock persisted, and so extracoporeal membranous oxygenation was performed to treat this. Afterwards, the cardiogenic shock still persisted, and the auscultatory and echocardiographic findings revealed severe acute mitral valve regurgitation. Emergency mitral valve replacement was then performed. The ECMO and IABP were removed on the 2nd postoperative day. The patient was discharged on the 48th postoperative day.
Chest Pain ; Coronary Angiography ; Emergencies ; Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Intra-Aortic Balloon Pumping ; Middle Aged ; Mitral Valve ; Mitral Valve Insufficiency ; Myocardial Infarction ; Oxygen ; Papillary Muscles ; Rupture ; Shock, Cardiogenic

Successful thoracic endovascular repair for complicated Stanford type B acute aortic dissection in two patients is herein reported. The true lumen flow was immediately restored following stent graft deployment in the descending thoracic aorta with subsequent resolution of the distal malperfusion syndrome. One patient is doing well more than 15 months after surgery and another patient who was treated more recently is also doing well 7 months postoperatively.
Aorta, Thoracic ; Humans ; Stents ; Transplants

Postoperative coronary arterial spasm is a rare but potentially fatal complication. A 51-year-old male patient with a history of a reactive ergonovine stress test coronary angiogram developed refractory coronary artery spasm after undergoing minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass grafting of the left anterior descending coronary artery. The patient was successfully managed with rapid implementation of intra-aortic balloon-pump counter pulsation and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
Coronary Artery Bypass ; Coronary Vessels ; Ergonovine ; Exercise Test ; Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Organothiophosphorus Compounds ; Self-Help Devices ; Spasm

Postoperative coronary arterial spasm is a rare but potentially fatal complication. A 51-year-old male patient with a history of a reactive ergonovine stress test coronary angiogram developed refractory coronary artery spasm after undergoing minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass grafting of the left anterior descending coronary artery. The patient was successfully managed with rapid implementation of intra-aortic balloon-pump counter pulsation and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
Coronary Artery Bypass ; Coronary Vessels ; Ergonovine ; Exercise Test ; Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Organothiophosphorus Compounds ; Self-Help Devices ; Spasm

BACKGROUND: B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) is a cardiac hormone that is primarily synthesized by the ventricular cardiac myocytes. Increased plasma BNP levels have been observed in patients suffering with congestive heart failure, ventricular hypertrophy and myocaridits and also during heart transplantation rejection. We investigated the serum BNP level as a predictive marker for rejection after heart transplantation. MATERIAL AND METHOD: To test the usefulness of measuring the BNP level in cardiac transplant patients, consecutive blood samplings for BNP, right ventricular endomyocardial biopsies, hemodynamic measurements and transthoracic echocardiogram were all done in 10 such patients between January 2004 and August 2005 at the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery in Asan Medical Center. Two groups were identified with using the median value: the low BNP group (n=28, BNP: < or =290 pg/mL) and the high BNP group (n=29, BNP: >290 pg/mL). We retrospectively analyzed rejection, the ejection fraction, tricuspid regurgitation, left ventricular hypertrophy, the pulmonary capillary wedge pressure and the right atrial pressure between the 2 groups. RESULT: There were no differences in age, gender, rejection, the ejection fraction, tricuspid regurgitation, left ventricular hypertrophy and the right atrial pressure between the 2 groups (p>0.05). However, a higher pulmonary capillary wedge pressure and a higher mean pulmonary atrial pressure were observed in the high BNP group (p<0.05). Further, BNP has linear correlation with the pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (r=0.590, p<0.001). Using the cut-off value of 620 pg/mL, the BNP predicted a high PCWP (>12 mmHg) with a sensitivity of 83.3% and a specificity of 91.1% (AUC: 0.900+/-0.045, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The BNP level after heart transplantation does not show any significant correlation with rejection, yet it might be a predictive marker of ventricular diastolic dysfunction.
Atrial Pressure ; Biopsy ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Heart Failure ; Heart Transplantation* ; Heart* ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Hypertrophy ; Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular ; Myocytes, Cardiac ; Natriuretic Peptide, Brain* ; Plasma ; Pulmonary Wedge Pressure ; Retrospective Studies ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Tricuspid Valve Insufficiency