Avoiding transthoracic echocardiography and transesophageal echocardiography for patients with variable body mass indexes in infective endocarditis

Background: Echocardiography has been a popular modality used to aid in the diagnosis of infective endocarditis (IE) with the modified Duke criteria. We evaluated the necessity between the uses of either a transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) or transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in patients with a body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to 25 kg/m2 and less than 25 kg/m2. Methods: A single-centered, retrospective study of 198 patients between 2005 and 2012 diagnosed with IE based on modified Duke criteria. Patients, required to be above age 18, had undergone an echocardiogram study and had blood cultures to be included in the study. Results: Among 198 patients, two echocardiographic groups were evaluated as 158 patients obtained a TTE, 143 obtained a TEE, and 103 overlapped with TEE and TTE. Out of these patients, 167 patients were included in the study as 109 (65%) were discovered to have native valve vegetations on TEE and 58 (35%) with TTE. TTE findings were compared with TEE results for true negatives and positives to isolate valvular vegetations. Overall sensitivity of TTE was calculated to be 67% with a specificity of 93%. Patients were further divided into two groups with the first group having a BMI ≥25 kg/m2 and the subsequent group with a BMI <25 kg/m2. Patients with a BMI ≥25 kg/m2 who underwent a TTE study had a sensitivity and specificity of 54 and 92%, respectively. On the contrary, patients with a BMI < 25 kg/m2 had a TTE sensitivity and specificity of 78 and 95%, respectively. Conclusions: Patients with a BMI <25 kg/m2 and a negative TTE should refrain from further diagnostic studies, with TEE strong clinical judgment is warranted. Patients with a BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 may proceed directly to TEE as the initial study, possibly avoiding an additional study with a TTE

Coronary artery disease in patients with body mass index ≥30 kg/m2: a retrospective chart analysis

Objective: In this study, we evaluated obesity as a single risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD), along with the synergistic effect of obesity and other risk factors. Methods: A retrospective study of 7,567 patients admitted to hospital for chest pain from 2005 to 2014 and underwent cardiac catheterization. Patients were divided into two groups: obese and normal with body mass index (BMI) calculated as ≥30 kg/m2 and <25, respectively. We assessed the modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors in obese patients and the degree of CAD. Results: Of the 7,567 patients who underwent cardiac catheterization, 414 (5.5%) had a BMI ≥30. Of 414 obese patients, 332 (80%) had evidence of CAD. Obese patients displayed evidence of CAD at the age of 57 versus 63.3 in non-obese patients (p<0.001). Of the 332 patients with CAD and obesity, 55.4% had obstructive CAD versus 44.6% with non-obstructive CAD. In obese patients with CAD, male gender and history of smoking were major risk factors for development of obstructive CAD (p=0.001 and 0.01, respectively) while dyslipidemia was a major risk factor for non-obstructive CAD (p=0.01). Additionally, obese patients with more than one risk factor developed obstructive CAD compared to non-obstructive CAD (p=0.003). Conclusion: Having a BMI ≥30 appears to be a risk factor for early development of CAD. Severity of CAD in obese patients is depicted on non-modifiable and modifiable risk factors such as the male gender and smoking or greater than one risk factor, respectively

Isolated supra-cardiac partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection causing right heart failure

Right heart failure (RHF) has been overlooked as left heart failure has predominated. One of the many causes of RHF is partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection (PAPVC), an extremely rare entity in nature. Physicians should consider the unusual causes of RHF after ruling out the common causes