Evaluation of epicardial adipose tissue, carotid intima-media thickness and ventricular functions in obese children and adolescents.

Background: Childhood obesity is a cardiovascular risk factor.

Objective: Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) thickness, carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and cardiac functions of obese children and their correlations were evaluated.

Subjects: Five hundred obese children and 150 age- and sex-matched healthy controls.

QT and P-wave dispersions in rheumatic heart disease: prospective long-term follow up.

Background: Simple electrocardiogram (ECG) markers have been used to evaluate conduction times. Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) is an autoimmune disease that affects these conduction times. The aim of this prospective long-term follow-up study was to evaluate QT, QTc and P-wave dispersions in children with ARF and chronic rheumatic heart disease (CRHD).

Evaluation of serum ischemia modified albumin levels in acute rheumatic fever before and after therapy.

Objective: To investigate ischemia modified albumin (IMA) levels in children with acute rheumatic fever (ARF) before and after therapy and compare them with those of controls.

Methods: Twenty seven patients with ARF and 18 healthy, age and sex matched children were included in the study. The diagnosis of ARF was established according to the modified Jones criteria.

The role of tenascin-C and oxidative stress in rheumatic and congenital heart valve diseases: an observational study.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of tenascin-C (TnC) and total oxidant-antioxidant status to rheumatic or congenital heart valve diseases (HVD) in pediatric patients.

Methods: Fifty pediatric patients (25 rheumatic HVD patients and 25 congenital HVD patients) and 20 healthy age-matched control subjects, aged 3-17 years, were enrolled in this observational and cross-sectional study. Serum total antioxidant capacity (TAC), total oxidant status (TOS), oxidative stress index (OSI) and TnC levels were compared among the groups.

Association between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and cardiovascular risk in obese children and adolescents.

Background: The recent rise in the prevalence of obesity likely explains nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) epidemic worldwide. We evaluated cardiac functions, cardiovascular risk, and associated parameters with grades of NAFLD in obese children.

Methods: Four hundred obese children were enrolled in the study.

Dispersion durations of P-wave and QT interval in children with congenital heart disease and pulmonary arterial hypertension.

This study aimed to investigate homogeneity disorders of ventricular repolarization and atrial conduction via QT dispersion and P-wave dispersion in children with congenital heart disease (CHD) and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Three groups of 20 each were generated and involved in this study. The first group included 20 children with both CHD and PAH.

[Ventricular septal defect developed due to coronary artery injury after blunt chest trauma in childhood].

In the literature, cardiac response associated with blunt chest trauma in children has been reported generally as case reports, and interventricular septal rupture due to trauma is quite rare. Interventricular septal rupture can develop even in the absence of visible signs of a trauma because of the flexibility of the chest structure in children. In the present case, a seven-year-old boy with interventricular septal rupture at the mid-muscular region and left ventricle pseudoaneurysm developed due to injury to the left anterior descending coronary artery after a traffic accident is reported.

Evaluation of cardiac functions in term small for gestational age newborns with mild growth retardation: a serial conventional and tissue Doppler imaging echocardiographic study.

Background: The aim of this study is to evaluate the cardiac functions of term small for gestational age (SGA) babies with mild growth retardation by echocardiography during the postnatal period.

Methods And Results: Thirty term SGA (2271±207 g/38-41 weeks (mean 39.5 weeks)) and 30 term AGA (3298±338 g/38-41 weeks (mean 39 weeks)) newborns as the control group, with normal general health status and with no nutritional problems were evaluated at three time points, on the 3rd postnatal day, at the 3rd and the 6th months.

[The association between pulmonary arterial hypertension and malnutrition in children with congenital heart diseases with left-to-right shunt: an observational study].

Objective: To evaluate the association between the degree of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and the level of malnutrition in children with acyanotic congenital heart diseases and left-to-right shunt, and especially to evaluate the development rates of malnutrition in patients with borderline PAH.

Methods: The study was performed with data of 327 patients with acyanotic congenital heart diseases and left-to-right shunt and underwent cardiac catheterization between January 2001-February 2011. The design of the study was retrospective and observational.

Usability of QTc dispersion for the prediction of orthostatic intolerance syndromes.

Background: Syncope is defined as transient loss of consciousness and muscle tone, usually of short duration. Noncardiac causes of syncope are classified as orthostatic intolerance syndromes (OIS). QT and QTc (corrected QT) dispersions are the measurements of myocardial instability and show predisposition to arrhythmias.

PHACE syndrome with growth hormone deficiency and absence of bilateral internal carotid arteries: a case report.

PHACE syndrome is characterized by posterior fossa malformations (P), large facial hemangiomas (H), arterial anomalies (A), cardiac anomalies or coarctation of aorta (C), and eye anomalies (E) and has striking female predominance. Endocrine abnormalities have recently been described in these patients, involving the thyroid and pituitary glands. We report the case of a 2-year-old girl with the clinical features of PHACE with absence of bilateral internal carotid arteries and isolated growth hormone deficiency.