Characteristics and Outcomes of Ventricular Tachycardia and Premature Ventricular Contractions Ablation in Patients with Prior Mitral Valve Surgery

Background: Data regarding ventricular tachycardia (VT) or premature ventricular complex (PVC) ablation following MVS is limited.) CA can be challenging given perivalvular substrate in the setting of mitral annuloplasty or prosthetic valves. Objective: To investigate the characteristics, safety, and outcomes of radiofrequency catheter ablation (CA) in patients with prior mitral valve surgery (MVS) and ventricular arrhythmias (VA). Methods: We identified consecutive patients with prior MVS who underwent CA for VT or PVC between January 2013- December 2018. We investigated the mechanism of arrhythmia, ablation approach, peri-operative complications, and outcomes. Results: In our cohort of 31 patients (77% men, mean age 62.3±10.8 years, left ventricular ejection fraction 39.2±13.9%) with prior MVS underwent CA (16 VT; 15 PVC). Access to the left ventricle was via transseptal approach in 17 patients, and a retrograde aortic approach was used in 13 patients. A combined transseptal and retrograde aortic approach was used in one patient, and a percutaneous epicardial approach was combined with trans-septal approach in 1patient. Heterogenous scar regions were present in 94% of VT patients and scar-related reentry was the dominant mechanism of VT. Clinical VA substrates involved the peri-mitral area in 6 patients with VT and 5 patients with PVC ablation. No procedure-related complications were reported. The overall recurrence-free rate at 1-year was 72.2%; 67% in the VT group and 78% in the PVC group. No arrhythmia-related death was documented on long-term follow-up. Conclusion: CA of VAs can be performed safely and effectively in patients with MVS

A CASE OF INFECTIVE ENDOCARDITIS COMPLICATED BY ACUTE ISCHEMIC STROKE

Infective endocarditis is an infectious and inammatory process involving endothelial lining of heart structures and valves. Cerebrovascular complications (CVCs) frequently occur in patients who are in the active stage of infective endocarditis (IE), and result from cerebral septic embolization of an endocardial vegetation. Acute stroke due to septic emboli is a particularly dreaded complication , with a frequency of 25-35%. Here we present a case of 32 year old male patient, who comes to the ER with high grade fever and palpitations since 9 days. On examination we found hyperdynamic impulse with decrescendo type systolic murmur at mitral area and we decided to do a blood workup and also requested a 2D ECHO. Blood culture and 2D ECHO showed different species of streptococci and mitral regurgitation respectively. Based on the investigations we started the patient on antibiotics, However, on the day 7 of treatment, patient developed slurring of speech and hemiparesis followed by motor aphasia. We sent the patient for brain MRI that showed acute infarct in left central semioval, left corona radiata and left perisylvian region. Acute ischemic stroke is the complication of the infective endocarditis and we started tpAalong with intravenous antibiotics after which he experienced signicant clinical improvement in few days.

HUMAN IDENTIFICATION BASED ON HEART SOUND AUSCULTATION POINT

The application of human identification and verification has widely been used for over the past few decades. Drawbacks of such system however, are inevitable as forgery sophisticatedly developed alongside the technology advancement. Thus, this study proposed a research on the possibility of using heart sound as biometric. The main aim is to find an optimal auscultation point of heart sounds from either aortic, pulmonic, tricuspid or mitral that will most suitable to be used as the sound pattern for personal identification. In this study, the heart sound was recorded from 92 participants using a Welch Allyn Meditron electronic stethoscope whereas Meditron Analyzer software was used to capture the signal of heart sounds and ECG simultaneously for duration of 1 minute. The system is developed by a combination Mel Frequency Cepstrum Coefficients (MFCC) and Hidden Markov Model (HMM). The highest recognition rate is obtained at aortic area with 98.7% when HMM has 1 state and 32 mixtures, the lowest Equal Error Rate (EER) achieved was 0.9% which is also at aortic area. In contrast, the best average performance of HMM for every location is obtained at mitral area with 99.1% accuracy and 17.7% accuracy of EER at tricuspid area.

Usefulness of the second heart sound for predicting pulmonary hypertension in patients with interstitial lung disease

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: P2 hyperphonesis is considered to be a valuable finding in semiological diagnoses of pulmonary hypertension (PH). The aim here was to evaluate the accuracy of the pulmonary component of second heart sounds for predicting PH in patients with interstitial lung disease. DESIGN AND SETTING: Cross-sectional study at the University of Brasilia and Hospital de Base do Distrito Federal. METHODS: Heart sounds were acquired using an electronic stethoscope and were analyzed using phonocardiography. Clinical signs suggestive of PH, such as second heart sound (S2) in pulmonary area louder than in aortic area; P2 > A2 in pulmonary area and P2 present in mitral area, were compared with Doppler echocardiographic parameters suggestive of PH. Sensitivity (S), specificity (Sp) and positive (LR+) and negative (LR-) likelihood ratios were evaluated. RESULTS: There was no significant correlation between S2 or P2 amplitude and PASP (pulmonary artery systolic pressure) (P = 0.185 and 0.115; P= 0.13 and 0.34, respectively). Higher S2 in pulmonary area than in aortic area, compared with all the criteria suggestive of PH, showed S = 60%, Sp= 22%; LR+ = 0.7; LR- = 1.7; while P2> A2 showed S= 57%, Sp = 39%; LR+ = 0.9; LR- = 1.1; and P2 in mitral area showed: S= 68%, Sp = 41%; LR+ = 1.1; LR- = 0.7. All these signals together showed: S= 50%, Sp = 56%. CONCLUSIONS: The semiological signs indicative of PH presented low sensitivity and specificity levels for clinically diagnosing this comorbidity.