To the Editor:
In their report of “Six-Year Survival of Unoperated Ventricular Septal Rupture Following Myocardial Infarction,” 1 Kamishirado and associates failed to refer to our description of a 72-year-old man who was alive 17 years after an unoperated, postinfarctional ventricular septal defect. Our patient was unique in that during the 17-year period he had become progressively cyanotic as a consequence of the Eisenmenger syndrome: systemic pulmonary hypertension due to markedly increased pulmonary vascular resistance with reversed central shunting. 2
References
- 1.Kamishirado H, Inoue T, Sakai Y, Matsunaga R, Morooka S. Six-year survival of unoperated ventricular septal rupture. Tex Heart Inst J 1999;26:315–7. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
- 2.Rothfeld EL, Zucker IR, Parsonnet V. Postinfarction ventricular septal defect and the Eisenmenger syndrome. Chest 1972;62:224–6. [DOI] [PubMed]