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Abstract Left atrial wall dissection is a rare entity with controversial management approaches. We report the case of an 85‐year‐old woman with a mitral bioprosthetic admitted for heart failure. Diagnosis of atrial septum dissection, severe aortic stenosis, and paravalvular mitral regurgitation was established. A percutaneous approach provided clinical improvements.

Background: Primary angioplasty is the standard procedure for patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). However, myocardial reperfusion results in additional cell damage. Levosimendan, due to its pleiotropic effects, may be a therapeutic alternative to prevent this damage. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether this drug can reduce infarct size in patients with STEMI., Methods: Patients were randomized to receive a 24-h infusion of either levosimendan (0.1 μg/kg/min) or placebo after the primary angioplasty. The main objective was to assess the size of the infarct by cardiac resonance at 30 days and 6 months after the event. Other variables such as left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and adverse ventricular remodeling (AVR) were assessed by speckle-tracking echocardiography and magnetic resonance. Major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) were also collected., Results: 157 patients were analysed (levosimendan, n = 79; placebo, n = 78). We found that after 6 months, patients treated with levosimendan had a greater reduction in infarct size (13.19% ± 9.5% vs.11.79% ± 9%, p = 0.001), compared with those in the placebo group (13.35% ± 7.1% vs. 13.43% ± 7.8%, p = 0.38). There were no significant differences in MACE between both groups., Conclusions: Levosimendan is a safe and effective therapeutic option for reducing infarct size in patients with STEMI., (© 2024 The Author(s). Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Constrictive pericarditis is an infrequent cause of heart failure. Diagnosis is challenging and requires a high level of suspicion. Subtle echocardiographic findings, as the pericardial bounce, could be the clue to diagnosis., Competing Interests: No conflicts of interest to declare., (© 2023 The Authors. Clinical Case Reports published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Cardiac masses are currently studied using multimodality imaging. For diagnosis, different imaging techniques that can provide complementary information are used. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become a fundamental tool for this type of pathology owing to its ability to provide tissue characterization, spatial accuracy, and the anatomic relationships of the different structures. This study presents a series of four clinical cases with an initial diagnosis of a cardiac mass. All cases were evaluated at a single center, and patients were aged 57 to 72 years. An etiological study was conducted on all patients using different imaging techniques, including MRI. This study describes the diagnostic and therapeutic procedures of the four cases, which included two intracardiac metastases and two benign tumors. Cardiac MRI was decisive in the diagnostic process, determining the clinical decision-making in all four cases. Cardiac MRI has emerged as a pivotal technique in the diagnosis of cardiac masses. It can provide a highly accurate histological diagnosis without the need for invasive techniques.

Mitral regurgitation is the second-most frequent valvular heart disease in Europe after degenerative aortic stenosis. It is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, and its prevalence is expected to increase with population aging. Echocardiography is the first diagnostic approach to assess its severity, constituting a challenging process in which a multimodality evaluation, integrating quantitative, semiquantitative and qualitative methods, as well as a detailed evaluation of the morphology and function of both left ventricle and atria is the key. In this review, we would like to provide a practical diagnosis approach on the mitral valve regurgitation mechanism, severity quantification, and planning of future therapeutic options.

We report the case of a 53-year-old man with psoriatic arthritis, suffering from a malignant and recidivant myoepithelioma in his right axilla and arm, and undergoing two surgeries, with the last one being performed a month prior to actual admission. After the last surgery, he was admitted to hospital with fever without a source. After physical examination, laboratory tests, blood cultures and transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography, he was diagnosed with infectious endocarditis (IE) on a bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) caused by Pseudomona aeruginosa (PA). Antibiogram-guided antibiotic therapy with meropenem and tobramicin was initiated. However, in the presence of repetitive spleen infarctions and a large vegetation, 12 days after admission, a bioprosthesis aortic valve implantation was performed. The postsurgical evolution was favorable and prolonged antibiotic course with meropenem and tobramicin was completed. The pathological anatomy and the native valve cultured confirmed an IE caused by PA. Gram-negative non-HACEK IE cases are infrequent, accounting for 1.8% of the total IE cases. PA is the second most frequent bacillus in this group, causing endocarditis more prevalently when associated with healthcare procedures rather than injectable drug use. No prior case study has identified IE caused by PA related to a BAV in the last years., Competing Interests: None to declare., (Copyright 2022, Lacalzada-Almeida et al.)

Introduction and Objectives: There are scarce data on left atrial (LA) enlargement and electrophysiological features in athletes., Methods: Multicenter observational study in competitive athletes and controls. LA enlargement was defined as LA volume indexed to body surface area ≥ 34mL/m 2 . We analyzed its relationship with atrial electrocardiography parameters., Results: We included 356 participants, 308 athletes (mean age: 36.4±11.6 years) and 48 controls (mean age: 49.3±16.1 years). Compared with controls, athletes had a higher mean LA volume index (29.8±8.6 vs 25.6±8.0mL/m 2 , P=.006) and a higher prevalence of LA enlargement (113 [36.7%] vs 5 [10.4%], P <.001), but there were no relevant differences in P-wave duration (106.3±12.5ms vs 108.2±7.7ms; P=.31), the prevalence of interatrial block (40 [13.0%] vs 4 [8.3%]; P=.36), or morphology-voltage-P-wave duration score (1.8±0.84 vs 1.5±0.8; P=.71). Competitive training was independently associated with LA enlargement (OR, 14.7; 95%CI, 4.7-44.0; P <.001) but not with P-wave duration (OR, 1.02; 95%CI, 0.99-1.04), IAB (OR, 1.4; 95%CI, 0.7-3.1), or with morphology-voltage-P-wave duration score (OR, 1.4; 95%CI, 0.9-2.2)., Conclusions: LA enlargement is common in adult competitive athletes but is not accompanied by a significant modification in electrocardiographic parameters., (Copyright © 2021 Sociedad Española de Cardiología. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)