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A 55-year-old man with suspected community-acquired pneumonia and atrial fibrillation was found to have a very large left atrial myxoma complicated with a pulmonary triad – pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary infarction, and pulmonary lymphadenopathy. The myxoma was successfully removed and complete resolution of all three pulmonary complications followed. He re-presented two weeks post-surgery with atrial flutter, which was medically treated and considered for ablation. We have taken the opportunity to undergo a mini-literature review on myxoma and its pulmonary complications.

The study sought to evaluate the indications, image quality, safety and impact on patient management of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) in a district general hospital setting.  The database was developed using retrospective analysis of patient records from the start of the local CMR service in January 2014 until January 2017. All 791 consecutive patients were included in the dataset.

The most important indications were the investigation of myocarditis/cardiomyopathies (54.5%), work-up of suspected coronary artery disease (CAD)/ischaemia (27.1%), and assessment of viability (9.1%). Image quality was diagnostic in 99.9% of cases. Mild adverse effects were reported for 3.8% of patients for stress CMR and in 1.1% of non-stress CMR. No serious adverse events were reported in this study population. In 26.5% of cases, CMR findings resulted in therapeutic modifications. In 18.1%, the final diagnosis based on CMR was different to that suspected before the CMR.

In conclusion, the findings of this study emphasise that CMR is a safe procedure with high image quality. In many cases, CMR can be shown to change a patient’s management plan.

Peri-partum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality worldwide, but the exact cause of PPCM is still unknown. PPCM is often associated with many risk factors, especially hypertension in pregnancy. This study aimed to evaluate the most influential risk factors of PPCM in Javanese ethnic patients.

The study was a case-control study involving 96 PPCM patients and 96 healthy non-PPCM parturients (control group) in the Hasan Sadikin Central General Hospital, West Java, Indonesia in the period from 2011 to 2014. A multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the most influential risk factors for PPCM.

There were four significant and independent risk factors in this study, which were low socioeconomic status (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3.312; confidence interval [CI] 1.383, 7.932), history of hypertension in previous pregnancy (adjusted OR 4.862; CI 1.245, 8.988), hypertension in current pregnancy (adjusted OR 2.311; CI 1.164, 4.590), and multi-foetal pregnancy (adjusted OR 7.057; CI 0.777, 64.097). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed the history of hypertension in previous pregnancy or hypertension in current pregnancy were the most influential independent risk factors of PPCM based on the narrowest confidence interval range, and after adjustment for other significant risk factors.

In this study, history of hypertension in previous pregnancy and hypertension in current pregnancy were the most influential and independent risk factors for PPCM. This study may increase awareness of treatment required for patients with hypertension in pregnancy, and also supports the pathogenesis of hypertension in pregnancy associated with PPCM, especially pre-eclampsia.

The clinical presentation of patients with cardiac tamponade largely depends upon the length of time over which pericardial fluid accumulates and the clinical situation. It can result in a clinical picture ranging from cardiogenic shock to general malaise, including dyspnoea, chest discomfort or fullness, peripheral oedema and fatiguability.

Although cardiac tamponade is a clinical diagnosis, two-dimensional and Doppler echocardiography play major roles in the identification of pericardial effusion and in assessing its haemodynamic significance. Despite this, some other imaging techniques or diagnostic tools could also be used for diagnosis. With this case we want to highlight not only the role of the electrocardiogram (ECG), but also its utility in assessing the haemodynamic changes in this clinical entity.

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common congenital anomaly, with an estimated prevalence of eight per 1,000 births.¹ However, reliable data on long-term survival for this heterogeneous group of patients are still lacking. Previous population-based studies from the US reported age-standardised mortality rates secondary to CHD of 1.2 per 100,000.² Mortality was highest during infancy (48.1% of all deaths occurred under the age of one year), however, the majority of the remaining deaths occurred outside of childhood, following transition to adult care. Yet, while it is accepted that individuals with CHD may have a higher mortality compared with the general population, the wide spectrum of disease means interpretation of population-based mortality rates for individual lesions is difficult. Additionally, a significant number of studies report only on short-term follow-up, meaning that long-term outcomes are unknown. A previous systematic review reported pooled survival estimates for common CHD lesions, however, it only included studies from hospital-based cohorts with survival estimates calculated from the time of surgical repair.³ It, therefore, does not account for those patients who do not need surgical intervention and may not be representative of all patients with CHD. Knowing the expected mortality rates for CHD is not only important for family counselling, but also in service planning.