Left internal thoracic artery fistula draining to left pulmonary artery is an extremely rare complication following myocardial revascularization. It may cause recurrent angina, dyspnea, heart failure, endocarditis, among other conditions. It should always be considered in the absence of a clear cause for the onset of these symptoms after myocardial revascularization. The diagnosis is made by coronary angiography, and most patients are treated by surgical or percutaneous closure of the fistula.
CASE REPORTA 73-year-old white male patient with a history of systemic arterial hypertension and coronary artery bypass grafting six years ago using the following grafts: left internal thoracic (mammary) artery to anterior descending artery, sequential saphenous vein to the 1 st and 2 nd left marginal arteries and saphenous vein to the 1 st diagonal artery. The patient presented with asthenia and progressive exertional dyspnea, which has been getting worse over the last few months even on mild exertion. He had been taking captopril 150 mg/d, hydrochlorothiazide 25 mg/d, and acetylsalicylic acid 200 mg/d. The cardiovascular physical examination was normal, except for a fourth heart sound (S4). His lungs were found to be clean. First-degree atrioventricular block and left anterior hemiblock was seen on ECG. The echocardiogram revealed only left ventricular hypertrophy and diastolic disfunction. Myocardial ischemia investigation was performed through stress/rest myocardial perfusion scintigraphy. The scan ( fig.1) showed low uptake of the radiopharmaceutical (Tc-99 sestamibi) in the anteroseptal region on stress, which returned to normal at rest, a finding consistent with anteroseptal ischemia. Coronary angiography and left ventriculography were thus performed, showing patency of all grafts and a 70% obstruction of the right coronary artery. However, a large fistula arising at the initial portion of the left mammary artery draining to the left pulmonary artery was detected ( fig. 2 e 3). This fistula resulted in a significant steal of flow from the anterior descending artery, thought to be the cause of the anteroseptal ischemia. A surgical ligation of the fistula was performed, and the patient was discharged from the hospital. During the oneyear follow-up period, the patient was free of the symptoms which led to his hospitalization.We report a patient who developed dyspnea on mild exertion six years after coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). Myocardial ischemia was documented by radionuclide imaging, and coronary angiography showed patency of all grafts and a large fistula between the left internal thoracic artery (LITA) and the left pulmonary artery (LPA). The patient was submitted to surgical closure of the fistula and made an excellent recovery.
Introduction: Low back pain appears in approximately two thirds of the population at some point in life and when it exceeds more than 12 weeks, it evolves to chronic low back pain. Chronic low back pain is considered one of the most common causes of disability and absence from work. A therapeutic technique that can be used as a treatment for chronic low back pain is neural mobilization, capable of restoring compromised neurological structures, restoring movement by improving the elasticity of neural tissue and adjacent tissues. Objective: To verify the effects of neural mobilization in patients with chronic low back pain. Material and methods: All articles were carefully evaluated in order to obtain concrete and reliable information. The databases used were Google Scholar, Scielo, Medline and PubMed due to the methodological quality and articles in the area of interest. The keywords “low back pain”, “chronic low back pain”, “neural mobilization” and “physiotherapeutic intervention” were combined in the most diverse possibilities, in English and Spanish translations. Results: 86 articles were found, nine of which were included in this review. They had a score ≥ 5 on the PEDro Scale, which methodologically qualifies the articles. After analyzing the results obtained through the selected articles, all the data collected, as well as their respective results, were described in a table that contains data from the articles. Conclusions: Neural mobilization reduces pain and improves the extensibility of tissues, causing a reduction in painful sensation and increased flexibility. Therefore, it is necessary to continue research in order to verify new results obtained through this type of intervention.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.