Cardiac Case Studies

Cardiac Case Study Archives 

April 2008	LVAD Therapy Offers a Successful Alternative for End-Stage Heart Failure By S. Raja Laskar, MD, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Center for Heart Failure Therapy and Transplantation, Emory University School of Medicine Heart failure is increasing in incidence and prevalence in America. It is estimated 5 million people in the United States have congestive heart failure. Of that 5 million, almost 100,000 patients have advanced, end-stage heart failure or stage D heart failure...
July 2007	Acute Myopericarditis Following Smallpox Vaccination By Akbar Khan, MD, Cardiology Fellow, Emory University School of Medicine After a concentrated worldwide campaign launched in 1967, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the global eradication of endemic smallpox in 1979. Routine vaccination of civilians in the United States officially ceased the following year and, beginning in 1989, military personnel no longer were immunized...
June 2007	An Uncommon Problem: Atrial Myxoma By Jake Green, MD, Cardiology Fellow, Emory University School of Medicine Primary Cardiac tumors are extremely rare, having an estimated incidence of only 0.1 percent. Metastatic involvement of the heart is greater than 20 times more common than primary tumors. More than 75 percent of primary cardiac tumors are benign, and the majority of these are atrial myxomas...
May 2007	Spontaneous Coronary Dissection Postpartum By Vijay Kasi, MD, Cardiology Fellow, Emory University School of Medicine Young women may develop myocardial infarction either during pregnancy or during the early postpartum period. Coronary angiography has demonstrated spontaneous coronary dissection in the majority of cases...
March 2007	The Encased Heart: Evaluating Constrictive Pericarditis By Michael Hoskins, MD, Clinical Cardiology Fellow, Emory University School of Medicine A 64-year-old African American male presented to the hospital complaining of six months of progressively worsening shortness of breath, exertional fatigue and lower extremity swelling. The patient experienced no chest pain or palpitations. He had a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and had attributed his symptoms to that condition. Thus, he had not sought medical attention prior to this presentation despite gaining approximately 50 pounds during the course of his symptoms...