Postmortem imaging in congenital heart disease: preliminary experience.

Background: Despite the importance of the autopsy for quality improvement, autopsy rates have declined dramatically in recent decades due to poor acceptance by families and physicians and high costs to institutions.

Purpose: To compare postmortem imaging (PMI) with autopsy in patients with congenital heart defects to see if PMI could substitute in some or all cases and to compare costs of the two methods.

Material And Methods: Ten patients with congenital heart disease dying in hospital during the study period in whom an autopsy was planned underwent PMI using postmortem magnetic resonance imaging (PMMRI) (6 patients) and postmortem computed tomographic angiography (PMCTA) (10 patients) with permission of the family.

Giant aneurysm of the atrial appendages in infants.

This case series describe two patients with giant aneurysms of the atrial appendages. This report discusses the clinical symptoms, imaging modalities, indications for surgical intervention, and histology of atrial appendage aneurysms.

Preliminary experience with porcine intestinal submucosa (CorMatrix) for valve reconstruction in congenital heart disease: histologic evaluation of explanted valves.

Objective: We compared the histologic findings in explanted CorMatrix (9 patients) and autologous pericardium (9 patients) used for valvuloplasty of the aortic (7 patients) and/or mitral (11 patients) valve in patients with congenital heart defects.

Methods: We used standard tissue stains and immunohistochemistry to identify the inflammatory cell type.

Results: CorMatrix was associated with an intense inflammatory response in the surrounding native tissue, extending into CorMatrix in 8 of 9 cases, continuing to the longest follow-up point (9 months).

Effect of percutaneous mitral vavuloplasty on pregnant mother and foetus--a tertiary care hospital experience from a developing country.

Unlabelled: This study evaluated the short and long-term consequences of Percutaneous Mitral Valvuloplasty (PMV) in pregnant patients and their offspring, in a tertiary care setting, Karachi, Pakistan. The hospital database was used to retrieve all patients who underwent PMV during pregnancy in the period 1998-2007. The follow up data of the patients and the born children were obtained from the hospital records and also by contacting the patients via phone.