Background: Guidelines recommend in-hospital evaluation with cardiac monitoring and transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) to assess syncope in patients that are considered high-risk for major adverse cardiovascular events. We sought to identify variables associated with performing TTE in patients presenting with syncope. Methods: We abstracted demographic and clinical data from all patients evaluated for syncope at the [...]

Case Presentation: A 36 years old female with past medical history of IV drug abuse, presented with dyspnea, nasal congestion, tactile disturbances, diarrhea, body aches and generalized weakness for 1 day. She was recently treated for tricuspid valve endocarditis. A Transthoracic Echocardiogram (TTE) obtained at that time showed ejection fraction (EF) of 55-60%. On presentation, [...]

Case Presentation: A 49-year-old male presented with progressive lower extremity edema, exertional dyspnea and orthopnea for three weeks. Past medical history significant for non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, systolic heart failure and moderate aortic regurgitation (AR) diagnosed one year ago. Physical exam was significant for jugular vein distention, bibasilar crackles, loud 3/6 diastolic murmur in the aortic area [...]