Omega-3 Fatty Acids Improve Chronic Kidney Disease-Associated Pruritus and Inflammation.

Background and Objectives: Chronic kidney disease-associated pruritus (CKD-aP) is a common symptom in hemodialysis patients. A frequent and intense itching sensation largely torments patients, impacts quality of life outcomes, and it has an independent association with mortality. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of oral supplementation with omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (omega-3 PUFA) on circulating interleukin-6 (IL-6), cardiometabolic parameters, skin moisturization, and the consequent symptoms of pruritus in hemodialysis patients.

Coil embolization of pulmonary sequestration in two infants--A safe alternative management.

Pulmonary sequestration is a rare congenital anomaly with nonfunctioning lung tissue, for which the arterial blood supply is usually derived from the thoracic or abdominal aorta. Surgical resection is the conventional treatment for pulmonary sequestration. The arterial embolization of pulmonary sequestration is an alternative technique and a less invasive treatment than conventional surgical resection.

Critical management in patients with severe enterovirus 71 infection.

Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze clinical details occurring in children with severe enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection and synthesize the critical care experience for patients with severe EV71 infection.

Methods: A retrospective clinical, laboratory, and hemodynamic study was performed in a pediatric intensive care unit in a university hospital. From March 1998 to April 2000, seven consecutive pediatric patients with severe EV71 infection were retrospectively analyzed as the comparison group.

Postoperative chylothorax: differences between patients who received median sternotomy or lateral thoracotomy for congenital heart disease.

Background: Chylothorax after surgery for congenital heart disease is rare. We wanted to compare the different presentations of chylothorax in patients who received median sternotomy or lateral thoracotomy.

Patients And Methods: We retrospectively studied pediatric patients with congenital heart disease who received palliative or corrective surgeries and developed postoperative chylothorax between January 1992 and July 2003.

Hepatopulmonary syndrome: report of one case.

Hepatopulmonary syndrome consists of a triad of chronic liver disease, hypoxemia, and intrapulmonary vascular dilatation in the absence of primary cardiac or pulmonary diseases. Though this complication has been described in as many as 4-29% of patients with liver disease, its clinical manifestations are often subclinical. The standard diagnostic tests for hepatopulmonary syndrome are the applications of contrast echocardiography and 99mTc lung perfusion scan.

Isolated anomalous origin of right coronary artery from the main pulmonary artery.

The anomalous origin of the right coronary artery (ARCA) from the main pulmonary artery (MPA) is a rare congenital cardiac malformation and usually associated with other cardiac anomalies. Most patients with isolated ARCA from MPA remain asymptomatic, but they may develop myocardial ischemia and even sudden death. We reported an asymptomatic 7-year-old boy referred for evaluation of a heart murmur.

Isolation of the left subclavian artery in a child with tetralogy of Fallot and right aortic arch.

Isolation of the subclavian artery is a very rare vascular anomaly in which the subclavian artery does not communicate with the aortic arch but instead is connected to the pulmonary artery by the ductus arteriosus. The subclavian steal phenomenon from the vertebrobasilar system into the pulmonary and subclavian arteries is usually persistent. We report an 18-month-old boy with an isolated left subclavian artery associated with tetralogy of Fallot and right aortic arch.

Prediction of outcome in infants with congenital diaphragmatic hernia or severe diaphragmatic eventration.

Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) and severe congenital diaphragmatic eventration (SDE) still have high mortality. Our aims were to identify clinical prognostic factors for CDH and SDE, and to determine whether the size or area of the proximal bilateral pulmonary arteries (PA) correlate with the clinical outcome. We retrospectively analyzed medical charts of 26 patients--20 with CDH and 6 with SDE, but no obvious other associated anomalies--admitted over a 12-year period.