2008;91(2) – ABC CARDIOL

The coronary fistula is an anomaly characterized by the communication between a coronary artery and a cardiac chamber, pulmonary artery, coronary sinus and pulmonary veins. It represents 0.2 to 0.4% of the congenital cardiopathies and 0.1% to 0.2% of the adult population submitted to coronary angiography. We report the clinical case of a 64-year-old female patient, whose anomaly was diagnosed during a clinical investigation due to chest discomfort, dyspnea and syncope; the surgical correction was indicated, with opening of the pulmonary artery through extracorporeal circulation.

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Case Report

Patent ductus arteriosus: endovascular treatment in adult patient

Diego Felipe Gaia et al. José Honório Palma Hyung Chun Kim José Augusto Marcondes de Souza … Cláudia Rodrigues Alves Enio Buffolo

The patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is a common type of congenital heart defect and its correction is simple when performed early in life. Surgery is performed using stitches or clips. In adults, the anomaly can lead to pulmonary hypertension and ventricular dysfunction. Surgery in adults is controversial and high-risk. This report describes an alternative endovascular approach in an adult patient.

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Artigo Original

Surgery for Aortic Valve endocarditis: treatment options for aortic abscess

Antoninho Sanfins Arnoni et al. Renato Tambellini Arnoni Paulo Paredes Paulista Victoria E. Martinez … Antonio Flavio Sanches Almeida Camilo Abdulmassih Neto Jarbas Jackson Dinkhuysen Mario Issa Paulo Chaccur Luiz Carlos Bento de Souza

BACKGROUND: Patients with infective endocarditis show a large diversity of anatomical presentations, which has been a complicating factor for the surgical treatment of this condition, especially in those who develop abscesses in the aortic ring or intracardiac fistulae. For this reason, surgeons have been developing tactical options to repair it. There is consensus around the fact that the removal of infected tissue promotes radical cleaning, and that the outcome of the treatment has been improved by the manufacture of biological glues which facilitate the closure of abscesses and by the creation of new valve replacements. OBJECTIVE:To demonstrate yet one more treatment option for aortic abscess for selected cases: a valved conduit placed in infra-coronary position. METHODS: We employed the technique in three patients: in two of them we employed a valved conduit with a mechanical prosthesis and in one of them a valved conduit with a biological prosthesis. Two patients needed associated procedures such as replacement of mitral valve in one of them and tricuspid valvoplasty in the other. All cases involved reoperation of prostheses in aortic position. RESULTS: The progression during surgery and in the early postoperative period was satisfactory and the three patients were discharged from the Intensive Care Unit and were sent to hospital rooms. One of the patients progressed to death during hospital stay due to severe comorbidities which were present in the preoperative period, and which related to esophageal varices and hepatic involvement. The other two progressed well in the late postoperative period. CONCLUSION: We believe that this option is yet one more alternative for the treatment of abscesses with great involvement of aortic ring structures and mitro-aortic continuity.

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Editorial

Cardioverter-defibrillator in the primary prevention of sudden death: for all or for a few?

Leandro Ioschpe Zimerman

EDITORIAL

Cardioverter-defibrillator in the primary prevention of sudden death: for all or for a few?

[…]

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Case Report

Quadricuspid aortic valve by transthoracic echocardiography

Erlon Oliveira de Abreu Silva et al. Alessandro Giralde Iglesias Erlon de Abreu Silva

A 55-year-old woman seeks medical attention with palpitations, atypical chest pain and dyspnea upon exertion, lasting for 12 months. ECG showed left ventricular hypertrophy. Transthoracic Doppler echocardiogram confirmed hypertrophy of the left chambers and showed a quadricuspid aortic valve, with equal-sized cusps, in addition to a moderate regurgitant central flow. Upon echocardiography, the quadricuspid valve is identified by its characteristic “X” form during diastole and rectangular aspect during systole. Heart failure symptoms are presumably caused by valve insufficiency due to abnormal leaflet coaptation. Considering the possibility of progressive regurgitation, follow up on the patient was performed with periodic echocardiographic control. Symptoms responded to treatment.

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Artigo Original

Positive end-expiratory pressure and renal function influence B-type natriuretic peptide in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock

Victor Sarli Issa et al. Leandro Utino Taniguchi Marcelo Park Luiz Monteiro Cruz … Edimar Alcides Bocchi Irineu Tadeu Velasco Francisco Soriano

BACKGROUND: Myocardial dysfunction is a complication associated with a poor prognosis in septic patients. A biomarker of cardiac function providing prognostic information is of paramount interest. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine the value of B-type natriuretic peptide in patients with severe sepsis/septic shock. METHODS: We performed a prospective study in patients with severe sepsis/septic shock in a medical intensive care unit. B-type natriuretic peptide level was determined within 24 hours after the diagnosis of severe sepsis/septic shock. We also analyzed mortality, and presence of association between B-type natriuretic peptide and clinical, hemodynamic and respiratory variables. RESULTS: 23 (9 women; 14 men) patients with ages ranging from 20-79 (mean 51.3±18.6) years old and APACHE score of 22.6±11.8 were included; 15 (65.2%) patients received pulmonary artery catheters, and 20 (87%) were mechanically ventilated. Multivariate analysis disclosed inverse association between B-type natriuretic peptide values with positive end-expiratory pressure values, and direct association with creatinine (beta 0.548 and 0.377, p 0.02 and 0.002, respectively), but not with mortality, clinical and hemodynamic parameters. CONCLUSION: This is the first report on an inverse association between positive end-expiratory pressure and BNP levels in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock. BNP and creatinine levels should be taken into consideration when analyzing B-type natriuretic peptide levels in this setting.

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Magnetic resonance vs technetium-99m pyrophosphate scintigraphy in the detection of perioperative myocardial necrosis

Guilherme Urpia Monte et al. Luciano Ferreira Drager Fábio Solano de Freitas Souza Luiz Francisco Rodrigues de Ávila … José Rodrigues Parga Filho Luiz Antônio Machado César Marisa Izaki José Cláudio Meneghetti Carlos Eduardo Rochitte Roberto Kalil Filho

BACKGROUND: Perioperative myocardial infarction (POMI) is a complication of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) with a potential prognostic impact. Technetium-99m pyrophosphate myocardial scintigraphy (MS) is used in the diagnosis of POMI; however it shows a limited sensitivity for subendocardial lesions. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI), in turn, has a high accuracy in the detection of myocardial necrosis. OBJECTIVE: To compare CMRI and MS for the detection of POMI after CABG. METHODS: A total of 24 patients with chronic coronary artery disease were studied using the delayed contrast enhanced CMRI and MS before and after CABG by analyzing the development of areas of perioperative myocardial necrosis (POMI). Biochemical markers of myocardial injury (CKMB and troponin I) were also determined before and after surgery. RESULTS: Nineteen patients completed the study. Of these, 6 (32%) presented POMI on CMRI and 4 (21%) on MS (p = NS). Of the 323 left ventricular segments assessed, 17 (5.3%) showed perioperative necrosis on CMRI and 7 (2.2%) on MS (p = 0.013). Moderate agreement was observed between the methods (kappa = 0.46). There was disagreement regarding the diagnosis of POMI in 4 (21%) cases, most of them with small areas of perioperative necrosis on CMRI which were not visualized on MS. In all cases with POMI on CMRI, significant CKMB and troponin I elevations were observed. CONCLUSION: Moderate diagnostic agreement was observed between the methods for the detection of POMI, but CMRI enabled visualization of small areas of perioperative myocardial necrosis which were not identified on MS and were associated with elevation of biochemical markers of myocardial injury.

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Image

Three-dimensional echocardiography in patient with mitral valve prolapse

Marcelo Luiz Campos Vieira et al. Wilson Mathias Jr.

IMAGE

Three-dimensional echocardiography in patient with mitral valve prolapse

[…]

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Artigo Original

Brazilian version of a lifestyle questionnaire: translation and validation for young adults

Ciro Romélio Rodriguez Añez et al. Rodrigo Siqueira Reis Edio Luiz Petroski

BACKGROUND: Inappropriate lifestyles have been responsible for the leading causes of mortality. The purpose of the Fantastic Lifestyle Questionnaire is to help physicians involved in health prevention to identify and assess their patients’ lifestyles. OBJECTIVE: To translate and validate the Fantastic Lifestyle Questionnaire for use with young adults. METHODS: The process of translation into Portuguese and validation consisted of four steps: 1) translation; 2) correction and semantic adaptation by professional experts (judges); 3) content validation; and 4) a final evaluation by the target population. The statistical analyses used were Cronbach’s alpha to measure internal consistency reliability, intra-class correlation coefficient (R) for external consistency, and the Kappa index to test construct validity. RESULTS: Cronbach’s alpha coefficient measured the correlation between items and the total was 0.69, which is considered reasonable for an instrument designed to evaluate a latent variable that can only be estimated and not measured. When the items were grouped into domains, it was possible to verify that they all contributed equally to the stability of the questionnaire (α=0.60). The external consistency evaluated by intra-class correlation was R=0.92 (p=0.2), which demonstrates a high degree of reproducibility; the construct validity of 4 and 3 categories was 75 and 80.7% with Kappa indices of 0.58 and 0.7, respectively, which show an excellent discriminatory classificatory capacity. CONCLUSION: The Fantastic Lifestyle Questionnaire has an adequate internal and external consistency for evaluating young adult lifestyles, and it can be recommended for primary care and epidemiological studies.

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Tissue doppler imaging as a long-term prognostic index in left ventricular systolic dysfunction

Roberto Magalhães Saraiva et al. Rita de Cássia Castelli da Rocha Adriana Ferraz Martins Dario Marins Duarte … Renata da Silva Peixoto Simone Henriques de Castro Carla Tavares Gallicchio Andréa Lúcia de Araújo Sérgio Emanuel Kaiser

BACKGROUND: Tissue Doppler parameters correlate with left ventricular (LV) filling pressure and can be useful as prognostic indexes for patients with heart failure. OBJECTIVE: Determine whether tissue Doppler parameters can predict events during long term follow-up of outpatients with LV systolic dysfunction. MeTHODS: Retrospective study with 73 patients (aged 60.9±12.1 years) who underwent Doppler echocardiogram between March 2001 and May 2004. The primary endpoint studied was death or hospitalization due to heart failure worsening. RESULTS: The mean follow-up period was 1,367±665 days. After logistic stepwise multivariate analysis, including echocardiographic parameters, the ratio of maximal early diastolic filling wave velocity to maximal early diastolic myocardial velocity (E/E` ratio; p=0.0007), and LV ejection fraction (EF; p=0.01) remained significant predictors of the primary outcome. The optimal cutoffs for primary endpoint prediction for E/E’ ratio (AUC 0.77; p=0.0001) and EF (AUC 0.68, p=0.006) were respectively 12.7 and 30%. Accordingly, patients with E/E’ ratio > 12.7 (hazard ratio=3.8, p =0.001) or EF <30% (hazard ratio=2.3, p=0.03) had a poorer outcome by survival curve analysis. It is noteworthy that 47% of the patients with EF above the optimal cutoff point, but with high E/E' ratio, presented events during follow-up. CONCLUSION: E/E' ratio is an important independent long-term prognostic index of death or hospitalization due to worsening heart failure in outpatients with LV systolic dysfunction. Therefore, we recommend the measurement of this variable in the routine evaluation of such patients.

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Association between hyertension and overweight in adults in Belém, state of Pará (Brazil), 2005

Hilma Paixão Borges et al. Nilma do Carmo Cruz Erly Catarina Moura

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is a major public health issue affecting 20 to 25% of the global population of adults, and 12 to 35 % of Brazilians. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between hypertension and overweight. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2005 with a probabilistic sampling of the population >18 years of age in Belém, capital of the state of Pará, in the Northern region of Brazil, using the telephone surveillance system for chronic diseases (SIMTEL). The dependent variable was hypertension, the explanatory variable was overweight and the confounding variables were age, level of education and lifestyle characteristics. The variables associated with hypertension were run through the regression logistic model and odds ratios were calculated for each variable. RESULTS: Hypertension affected 16.2% of men and 18.3% of women, and overweight affected 49.2% of men and 34.1% of women. The prevalence of hypertension was directly associated with age and overweight in both genders. Among men, hypertension was associated with intake of vegetables and low intake of beans (similar to kidney- and pinto-type beans); as for women, hypertension was associated with marital status (widow or separated), and inversely to education level. The risk of hypertension increased directly with weight for both genders (p<0.001), and it was 6.33 times higher among obese men and 3.33 among obese women as compared to normal-weight subjects. CONCLUSION: Overweight was associated with hypertension. However, variables such as age, education, and food consumption interfere in this relationship, creating circumstances favorable to reducing or increasing that risk.

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Changes in pulmonary function after surgical treatment of congenital heart disease with pulmonary hyperflow

Lilian Goraieb et al. Ulisses Alexandre Croti Suzana Renata Perez Orrico Omar Yesid Prieto Rincon Domingo Marcolino Braile

BACKGROUND: Analysis of pulmonary status of pediatric patients in the postoperative phase of cardiac surgery. OBJECTIVE: To assess pulmonary compliance and airway resistance in patients with congenital heart disease and pulmonary hyperflow submitted to surgical treatment with the use of extracorporeal circulation. METHODS: Thirty-five patients were evaluated during surgery with measurements of static compliance and airway resistance at four different timepoints. Pulmonary measurements were performed non-invasively using end-inspiratory airway occlusion and specific mathematical formulas. The variables examined and related to pulmonary changes were: preoperative – age, weight, and relationship between systemic and pulmonary blood flow; intraoperative – perfusion times, anoxia times and minimum temperature; postoperative – time on mechanical ventilation and length of stay in the intensive care unit. RESULTS: Pulmonary compliance in all patients had an immediate and significant increase (P<0.001) at the end of surgery. Patients older than 30 months experienced a greater increase (P=0.0004). Those with more than 10kg also had a greater increase (P=0.0006). In patients on extracorporeal circulation for more than 50 minutes, the increase in pulmonary compliance took longer to occur (P=0.04). Airway resistance was not significantly changed at the end of surgery (P=0.393). CONCLUSION: All patients experienced improved pulmonary compliance at the end of surgery, and this was significantly influenced by age, weight and time on extracorporeal circulation. Airway resistance, however, was not changed.

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Artigo Original

Excess weight, arterial pressure and physical activity in commuting to school: correlations

Kelly S. Silva et al. Adair S. Lopes

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of obesity and elevated arterial pressure (AP) has increased in children and adolescents, whereas physical activity has decreased. OBJECTIVE: To identify and correlate excess weight, body fat and elevated AP among active and passive students with the way they commute to school. METHODS: One thousand five hundred and seventy students aged 7 to 12 years participated in the study conducted in João Pessoa, state of Paraíba. Students completed a questionnaire about the way they commuted to school (active = walking/biking or passive = by car/motorcycle/bus) and the time spent traveling to school. Excess weight was determined by BMI > 25 kg/m², excess body fat as > 85th percentile for tricipital fold measurement, and high AP as >90th percentile. Chi-square test and Poisson’s regression were used for the analysis. RESULTS: Active commuting was associated with a lower prevalence of excess weight and body fat as compared to passive commuting (p0.05) CONCLUSION: Passive commuting to school showed a correlation with excess weight and body fat but not with elevated AP. Excess weight was associated with excessive body fat and elevated AP. Excess weight should be prevented as a way to avoid fat accumulation and AP elevation.

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