A Gust of Fresh CASE Reports: August CASE

The latest issue of CASE is now available with intriguing reports, including “Acute Myocardial Infarction Mimicking Apical Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.” CASE Editor-in-Chief Vincent Sorrell, MD, FASE, remarked, “The authors reported serial echo findings in a patient who suffered a myocardial infarction. Their report informs readers with important insights regarding the natural history and evolution of myocardial recovery. They highlight transient apical wall thickening consistent with our understanding of myocardial edema after an acute infarction. They reiterate the clinical importance of their finding given the potential for misinterpretation as apical variant HCM. Only with the clinical context and serial echo findings would the echo reader be able to distinguish the true pathology. A similar transient apical wall thickening pattern has been reported during the recovery of takotsubo. This CASE helps us to better understand this echo finding, expand our differential diagnosis, and may prevent misdiagnosis.”

Five other cases accompany this Coronary Artery Disease report. Multimodality Imaging opens with a presentation of the TTE-based clinical course of a dramatic decrease in RV contractility in cardiac sarcoidosis with RV involvement. Hsia et al. follow with their Interventional Echocardiography case of a bifid left atrial appendage requiring a double lobe-and-disc device approach. There are two cases in the Fetal Echocardiography category, one reporting the early prenatal presentation of generalized arterial calcification of infancy and another highlighting a three-vessel view for fetal diagnosis of supracardiac total anomalous pulmonary venous connection. Rounding out this issue is a report by Heller et al. in the Echo Innovation category, demonstrating the current and future value of ICE, specifically in their case of ventricular tachycardia ablation.

Dr. Sorrell’s editorial explains the multi-step CASE review process and previews a new format for his editorials, which will now include author commentary for each of the featured CASE reports. Readers can look forward to additional insights and unique author perspectives about each CASE that are not included in the published report.

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