Uni-ventricular palliation vs. bi-ventricular repair: differential inflammatory response.

Background: To examine whether uni-ventricular palliation (UVP) and bi-ventricular repair (BVR) result in a different pattern of systemic inflammatory response to pediatric cardiac surgery with extra-corporeal circulation (ECC).

Methods: In 20 children (median age 39.5 months) undergoing either UVP (n = 12) or BVR (n = 8), plasma levels of the inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-6, IL-10, and IL-12 and of procalcitonin (PCT), were measured before, during and after open cardiac surgery up to postoperative day (POD) 10.

Myocardial Expression of Estrogen Receptor-mRNA Is Associated With Lower Markers of Post-operative Organ Damage in Young Patients With Congenital Cardiac Defect.

Estrogen receptors (ERs) relate to cardio-protection in adults, but their role in younger patients is not known. We aimed to assess the myocardial expression of ERα- and ERβ- mRNA in young patients with congenital cardiac disease and to analyze their putative protective role. Twenty children and young adults (seven females and 13 males) with a median age of 13.

Right Atrial Myocardial Remodeling in Children With Atrial Septal Defect Involves Inflammation, Growth, Fibrosis, and Apoptosis.

Myocardial remodeling due to large atrial septum defect (ASD) is macroscopically characterized by dilation of the right-sided cardiac cavities secondary to volume overload, the cellular mechanisms of which are not yet understood. We postulated that inflammation, fibrosis, and cell death are actors of right atrial remodeling secondary to ASD. In 12 children with large ASD (median age: 63 months), expression of genes coding for proteins involved in the response to cell stress and -protection, inflammation, growth and angiogenesis, fibrosis, and apoptosis was assessed by RT-PCR in right atrial myocardial biopsies taken during cardiac surgery.

Biomarkers of neonatal stress assessment: A prospective study.

Introduction: Early diagnosis of perinatal asphyxia, the major cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity, might be improved by the detection of neonatal stress biomarkers such as cardiac troponin (CTn)T, CTnI, NT-Terminal-pro-Brain Natriuretic Peptide (NT-pro-BNP), copeptin, and high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP). However, reference values in neonates are lacking. The objective of our study was therefore to establish a reference range of these biomarkers in healthy full term newborns and to analyze the influence of delivery mode on their cord blood concentrations.

[Hepatopulmonary syndrome: a complication of type 1 Gaucher disease].

Gaucher's disease is a not exceptional lysosomial disease in Tunisia. Type 1 is by far the most common one. Pulmonary involvement is considered to be rare in type 1 Gaucher's disease.