title: Heart echinococcus cyst as an incidental finding: early detection might be life-saving.
abstract: We present a 46-year-old female smoker who was admitted to the emergency department of our hospital due to cough with blood-tinged sputum for the last four days before admission. Using echocardiography and Multi-Detector Computed Tomography (MDCT) heart Echinococcosis was diagnosed. Echinococcosis is a severe health issue in some geographical regions of the world. Hydatid infection of the heart is rare and the clinical presentation is usually insidious but there is always the lethal hazard of cyst perforation. Early diagnosis and an integrated treatment strategy are crucial. The results of surgical treatment of heart echinococcosis are better than the conservative strategy only. Extraction of the cyst combined with chemotherapy peri or post operative aiming to decrease the recurrences, consists the lege artis method of encountering this medical entity. Surgical excision was performed and the patient had an uneventful recovery and follow up at six and twelve months.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Patras University School of Medicine, Patras, Greece. gregtsig@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Grigorios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tsigkas
authors.forename: Konstantinos
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chouchoulis
authors.forename: Efstratios
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Apostolakis
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kalogeropoulou
authors.forename: Nikolaos
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Koutsogiannis
authors.forename: Dimitra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Koumoundourou
authors.forename: Dimitrios
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Alexopoulos
mesh_terms: D042241:Early Diagnosis; D004443:Echinococcosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D033162:Incidental Findings; D008875:Middle Aged