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Oxford University Press, European Journal of Echocardiography, 2(10), p. 343-343

DOI: 10.1093/ejechocard/jen330

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Chronic fibrous sheath mistaken for retained pacemaker product

Journal article published in 2009 by Sheraz A. Nazir, Lucy Hudsmith, James D. Newton, Tim R. Betts ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

A 71-year-old man underwent implantation of a single-chamber system in 1988 for sinoatrial disease, which was then upgraded to dual-chamber 7 years later following recurrent syncope. He presented with pacemaker erosion but without clinical or laboratory evidence of infective endocarditis. The pacemaker system was uneventfully extracted 5 days later via a transfemoral approach using a needle-eye snare. A post-procedure trans-thoracic echocardiogram was performed, which demonstrated an echogenic structure in the right atrium-this was initially felt to be a retained fragment of pacing lead. A short-axis view of the tricuspid valve with a bright linear echo crossing is shown in Figure 1. However, a post-procedural chest X-ray confirmed the absence of any retained intra-cardiac lead. The reverberant cast-like structure noted is a heavily calcified fibrous sheath as the pacing leads were confirmed to be intact at the time of removal.