Echocardiographic Assessment of Cardiac Function in Pediatric Survivors of Anthracycline-Treated Childhood Cancer.

Background: Anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in childhood cancer survivors (CCSs). Echocardiographic myocardial strain imaging is recommended in adult patients with cancer, but its role in pediatric CCSs has not been well established. Aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of abnormalities in left ventricular strain in pediatric CCSs, to compare strain with other echocardiographic measurements and blood biomarkers, and to explore risk factors for reduced strain.

Pulmonary artery banding in complete atrioventricular septal defect.

Objectives: To analyze outcomes after pulmonary artery banding (PAB) in complete atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD), with a focus on surgical pathway outcome and timing, survival, and atrioventricular valve function.

Methods: PAB was performed in 50 of 474 infants (11%) from 28 institutions between 2012 and 2018 at a median age of 1.1 months.

The Congenital Heart Surgeon's Society Complete Atrioventricular Septal Defect Cohort: Baseline, Preintervention Echocardiographic Characteristics.

Quantifying unbalance, the threshold for single ventricle palliation vs biventricular repair in patients with unbalanced complete atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD), is challenging. Using a core laboratory review of baseline echocardiograms, we sought to assess the correlations among commonly used measures of unbalance and common atrioventricular valve (AVV) and ventricular sizes. A single reviewer evaluated baseline echocardiograms from an inception cohort of babies age < 1 year with complete AVSD admitted to 1 of 25 Congenital Heart Surgeon's Society institutions.

Relation of right ventricular mechanics to exercise tolerance in children after tetralogy of Fallot repair.

Background: Progressive right ventricular (RV) dysfunction and exercise intolerance are common problems after tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) repair. We investigated RV myocardial deformation and dyssynchrony in children after TOF repair and their association with exercise capacity.

Methods: Asymptomatic children after TOF repair were investigated by 2-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography, magnetic resonance, and metabolic exercise study.

Impaired right and left ventricular diastolic myocardial mechanics and filling in asymptomatic children and adolescents after repair of tetralogy of Fallot.

Aims: After tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) repair patients have right ventricular (RV) dysfunction and reduced exercise tolerance. Diastolic dysfunction may be important but is as yet poorly characterized. The early diastolic strain rate (SR) is a measure of ventricular relaxation, and may be useful to assess diastolic mechanics in TOF.

Echocardiographic assessment of right ventricular volumes: a comparison of different techniques in children after surgical repair of tetralogy of Fallot.

Aims: Different echocardiographic techniques are available for assessing right ventricular (RV) volumes but their clinical validity has not been well established. We compared the feasibility, reproducibility and accuracy of three different echocardiographic techniques for measuring RV volumes and ejection fraction (EF) in children after tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) repair.

Methods And Results: Seventy patients (age 14.

Echocardiographic assessment of right ventricular volumes after surgical repair of tetralogy of Fallot: clinical validation of a new echocardiographic method.

Background: Assessment of right ventricular (RV) volumes and function is important in patients after tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) repair. Currently, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is considered the clinical reference method for RV volume and function measurements. Three-dimensional (3D) knowledge-based reconstruction derived from two-dimensional echocardiographic imaging with magnetic tracking is a novel approach to RV volumetrics.

Isovolumic acceleration at rest and during exercise in children normal values for the left ventricle and first noninvasive demonstration of exercise-induced force-frequency relationships.

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the normal variation of left ventricular (LV) isovolumic acceleration (IVA) in healthy children and to assess the feasibility of an entirely noninvasive method for demonstration of the LV force-frequency relationship (FFR).

Background: Pediatric cardiologists continue to seek noninvasive, load-independent indexes for the assessment of LV contractility and myocardial reserve.

Methods: Resting LV IVA was measured by echocardiogram in 236 healthy children and compared with their clinical characteristics.

Evaluation of mechanical dyssynchrony in children with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy and associated clinical outcomes.

We studied mechanical dyssynchrony and its association with clinical status in children with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDC). The SD of QRS to peak systolic velocity interval by tissue Doppler was measured in 12 left ventricular segments, as a dyssynchrony index (DI), in each child with IDC during a 12-month period. Results were compared with a control cohort.