Infective endocarditis in children with normal heart: Indication for surgical intervention.

Although infective endocarditis is an uncommon condition, it can be fatal if not treated. The new era of infective endocarditis in children with structurally normal heart has become apparent entity. Duke criteria has been established for a long time and gives clear guidelines for diagnosis; however, surgical indication in pediatric population needs to be tailored to individual patients.

Recessively inherited severe aortic aneurysm caused by mutated EFEMP2.

Familial aortic aneurysm (AA) is mostly inherited as an autosomal dominant disorder. However, recessively inherited AA has also been observed but in association with skin manifestations of cutis laxa, which is caused by a mutated EFEMP2 gene. In the present study, we recruited 9 patients, from 4 unrelated consanguineous families, with recessively inherited AA.