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The authors report a case of Double Mitral Orifice (DMO), existing in isolation and type 3 by the Floch Prigent classification. This rare anomaly is often associated with another congenital malformation, dominated by intra-atrio-ventricular defect. Two-dimensional echocardiography is the essential diagnostic factor. Hemodynamic consequences may be nil, but mitral insufficiency and/or stenosis may complicate this malformation. Treatment may be summarised as abstention, surgical repair or valve replacement, according to the severity of lesions.

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Arterial hypertension is a risk factor both for morbidity and mortality. The diagnosis usually depends on the auscultation method using the cuff and the mercury manometer, which remains the international reference method. However, this indirect method is the source of numerous errors, sometimes important, which are related variously to the equipment used, the observer, the conditions under which the measurement is taken and sometimes to the patient. Such errors can in turn lead to therapeutic overdosage and to unnecessary treatment, which may be dangerous. "Pseudohypertension" is a typical example of the problems. Various means have been proposed to improve the reliability of measurements, above all the physician must adhere strictly to the correct routine. The use of self-registering equipment, provided it is scientifically assayed, can be considered for incidental measurements or for ambulant use. The ambulant measurement of arterial pressure promises to be of diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic value, but further experience is required to confirm these impressions.

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Cocaine is increasingly used by drug addicts. It is considered harmless, but numerous, varied and often serious complications due to its abuse have been published. Among these, neurological complications are in the forefront. They include generalized or partial epileptic seizures, ischaemic or haemorrhagic cerebral vascular accidents, visual loss caused by optic neuropathy or by retinal artery occlusion, headaches and exacerbation of tics. Infections of the central nervous system are possible via endocarditis or septicaemia of venous or nasal origin. Neurological disorders may also occur as a consequence of a major cardiovascular complication induced by cocaine (myocardial infarction and/or dysrhythmia, aortic dissection). These neurological complications are unpredictable, and they weigh heavily on the functional and sometimes vital prognosis in habitual or occasional cocaine abusers.

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The diagnosis of pheochromocytoma is biological. If ultrasound enables the visualization of certain adrenal tumours or hepatic metastasis, in fact two tests enable the topographic diagnosis, the screening of ectopic localizations and metastasis. They are IMBG scintigraphy and tomographic scanning. The place of magnetic resonance imaging is not yet specified. However, it has many advantages: absence of irradiations, good anatomic precision, meticulous screening of ectopic forms, of metastases and of adenopathies, study of the tissue characterization, good definition of the tumour relation with the vascular pedicles and the neighbouring structures.

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Arterial hypertension has the same definition in elderly people as in young adults. Epidemiologically, it has clearly been demonstrated that in the elderly it is a risk factor of morbidity and cardiovascular mortality. The international reference method for measuring blood pressure is by auscultation and mercury manometer. However, this indirect measurement is the source of many errors due to the material or the observer, or inherent in the method. A typical example of this is pseudohypertension in the elderly. Several solution are offered to improve the reliability of indirect blood pressure measurement, the most convincing one being the use of scientifically validated autonomous instruments relying on the oscillometry system. Ambulatory blood pressure measurement is interesting, being of diagnostic, therapeutic and probably prognostic value, but all this has to be confirmed in elderly subjects.

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Mycotic aneurysms are aneurysms infected by bacteria or fungi. These may be secondary to an endocarditis, or they may be primary, and then are developed from a septicemia or bacteremia. The diagnosis, often difficult, is sometime only made during complications, the most severe of which is rupture. This diagnosis must be aided by new imaging techniques such as ultrasonography, tomodensitometry, magnetic resonance imaging. The treatment is medical (antibiotics) and surgical.

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Between February, 1986 and October, 1987 percutaneous aortic valvuloplasty was attempted in 78 patients: 25 men (32 p. 100) and 53 women aged from 61 to 89 years (mean 79.5 years). All patients were symptomatic; 9 were in class II, 49 in class III and 20 in class IV of the NYHA classification. The decision to try percutaneous valvuloplasty was determined by the high surgical risk associated with age (over 75 in 87 p. 100 of the patients), poor physiological condition or concurrent pathology, or by refusal of surgery. 70 dilatations could actually be made (90 p. 100) either by the brachial route (n = 39) or the femoral route (n = 18) or the transseptal route (n = 7) or by a combined brachial and femoral route which enabled the double balloon technique to be used (n = 6). The procedure comprised 5.6 +/- 3 inflations and lasted for 58 +/- 29 min. The diameter of the largest balloon utilized was greater than 20 mm in 75 p. 100 of the cases. Dilatation reduced the aortic gradient from 62 to 28 mmHg (p less than 0.001) without altering the cardiac index (2.36 to 2.32 l/min/m2) and significantly increased the aortic valve area from 0.49 to 0.76 cm2 (p less than 0.001). At the end of the procedure the aortic valve area was greater than 0.7 cm2 in 63 p. 100 and greater than 1 cm2 in 14 p. 100 of the patients. Five patients had to be operated upon within the month following dilatation (3 after technical failure, 2 for poor functional results).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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The authors report a case of a 64-year-old patient with an adenocarcinoma of the bronchus with mediastinal involvement. The echocardiography and CT scan showed the existence of involvement of the left auricle. Confirmation and the extent of the intra-cardiac involvement were provided by nuclear magnetic resonance imaging which confirmed the diagnosis here and was particularly helpful. The authors further recall that the place of nuclear magnetic resonance as a standard investigation in assessing staging in bronchial cancer remains to be determined in relation to CT scanning.

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Over the last 3 years, 403 patients operated in the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery of Broussais Hospital have been transferred to a Department of Internal Medicine for secondary postoperative care. A total of 245 non-cardiac complications (64%) and 134 cardiac or vascular complications (36%) were observed in 321 of these 403 patients (80%). Infections accounted for 26% of non-cardiac complications (63/245). They included 9 cases of mediastinitis, 2 cases of septicemia, 6 endocarditis, 6 wound infections, and 40 other infections (ENT, gastrointestinal, pulmonary, urogenital). The non-cardiac, non-infectious complications comprised mainly delayed healing (39 cases) and pleuropulmonary (29 cases), ENT (9 cases), gastrointestinal (31 cases), urogenital (12 cases), hematological (17 cases) and neuropsychiatric (9 cases) complications; and, finally, 37 inflammatory syndromes. The cardiac complications were pericarditis with or without tamponade (24 cases), arrhythmias or conduction disturbances (50 cases), haemodynamic (54 cases) and vascular (6 cases complications. These very varied complications sometimes occurred late and could be latent. They resulted in prolongation of the duration of hospitalization, so increasing the overall health costs.

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In this paper we describe a case involving spontaneous dissection of the renal artery (DRA) successfully treated with an aorto-renal venous graft. DRA is a rare disorder which strikes men especially. Hypertension is the most frequent sign of its presence, which is usually of sudden onset, and with major adverse impact on the eye and brain. Arteriography is the key diagnostic examination. The most typical image is that of "cuffing". Treatment is surgical in nearly 50% of cases and should be as conservative as possible since these lesions may be bilateral.

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Propafenone (P), a class IC antiarrhythmic drug, was tested intravenously and orally in the curative and preventive treatment of sustained (VTS) and non-sustained (VTNS) ventricular tachycardia. The 16 patients involved included 11 men and 5 women of mean age 49 years. They all had heart disease: ischaemia in 3, right ventricular arrhythmogenic dysplasia in 6, dilated myocardiopathy in 5 and left ventricular aneurysm in 2. Intravenous P in doses of 1.5 mg/kg controlled VT within 2 or 3 minutes on average in 9 out of 12 patients. Following the injection VT could not be reinduced in 2 out of 10 patients; other inductions were harder to obtain or resulted in VTNS instead of VTS (n = 3), or remained unchanged (n = 5). When P was administered orally (mean dose 900 mg) to 14 patients reinduction of VT was no longer possible in 2 cases, more difficult in 1 case, remained unchanged in 7 cases and was easier in 4 cases. Long-term oral therapy at the same dosage level prevented recurrences of VT in 7 out of 14 patients; the drug was discontinued in 2 patients owing to its arrhythmogenic effect on induced VT. The patients were followed up for 5 to 36 months (mean: 16.4 +/- 11.7 months). In this trial the results of long-term treatment could not be predicted from Holter recordings or measurements of plasma levels.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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