Atrial septal defect closure in children at young age is beneficial for left ventricular function.

Aims: Atrial septal defects (ASDs) lead to volume-loaded right ventricles (RVs). ASD closure does not always alleviate symptoms or improve exercise capacity, which is possibly explained by impaired left ventricular (LV) haemodynamics. This study evaluated the effect of ASD closure in children using non-invasive LV pressure-volume (PV) loops derived from cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging and brachial blood pressure, compared with controls.

Newborn Screening for High-Risk Congenital Heart Disease by Dried Blood Spot Biomarker Analysis.

Importance: Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common human organ malformation, affecting approximately 1 of 125 newborns globally.

Objectives: Assessing the performance of 2 diagnostic tests using minimal amounts of dried blood spots (DBS) to identify high-risk CHD compared with controls in a Swedish cohort of neonates.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This diagnostic study took place in Sweden between 2019 and 2023 and enrolled full-term babies born between 2005 and 2023.

Left Ventricular Diastolic Function in Children with Atrial Septal Defects Improves After Closure by Means of Increased Hydraulic Force.

Hydraulic force aids diastolic filling of the left ventricle (LV) by facilitating basal movement of the atrioventricular plane. The short-axis atrioventricular area difference (AVAD) determines direction and magnitude of this force. Patients with atrial septal defect (ASD) have reduced LV filling due to the left-to-right shunt across the atrial septum and thus potentially altered hydraulic force.

Treatment-Relevant Findings in Transesophageal Echocardiography After Stroke: A Prospective Multicenter Cohort Study.

Background And Purpose: Cardiac ultrasound to identify sources of cardioembolism is part of the diagnostic workup of acute ischemic stroke. Recommendations on whether transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) should be performed in addition to transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) are controversial. We aimed to determine the incremental diagnostic yield of TEE in addition to TTE in patients with acute ischemic stroke with undetermined cause.

Evaluation of Circulating Cardiovascular Biomarker Levels for Early Detection of Congenital Heart Disease in Newborns in Sweden.

Importance: Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common congenital malformation in humans worldwide. Circulating cardiovascular biomarkers could potentially improve the early detection of CHD, even in asymptomatic newborns.

Objectives: To assess the performance of a dried blood spot (DBS) test to measure the cardiovascular biomarker amino terminal fragment of the prohormone brain-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels in newborns and to compare DBS with standard EDTA analysis in control newborns during the first week of life.

Developing person-centred analysis of harm in a paediatric hospital: a quality improvement report.

The provision of safe care is complex and difficult to achieve. Awareness of what happens in real time is one of the ways to develop a safe system within a culture of safety. At Great Ormond Street Hospital, we developed and tested a tool specifically designed for patients and families to report harm, with the aim of raising awareness and opportunities for staff to continually improve and provide safe care.

Electrical storm in children.

Electrical storm (ES) presents a difficult management problem that has predominantly been described in adults and there are limited published data relating to children. We set out to characterize ES in children to assist management based on published literature and own institutional experience. We retrospectively analyzed the records of children presenting with ES to our institution between July 2001 and July 2011 and conducted a systematic literature review.

Kawasaki disease: always straight to the heart?

Kawasaki disease is an important differential diagnosis when evaluating prolonged fever in childhood. Although the aetiology of this vasculitic disease process remains obscure, prompt recognition and treatment significantly reduces vascular complications such as coronary artery aneurysms. Patients presenting with atypical or incomplete diagnostic features remain a challenge.

Paediatric arrhythmias in the emergency department.

Objective: Emergency department (ED) staff need to rapidly establish accurate diagnosis and management for children with arrhythmias. Limited data are available on the presenting features, epidemiology and management of arrhythmias encountered in the ED. The aim of this study was to characterise the incidence, presenting features, management and outcomes of arrhythmias at a large tertiary children's hospital ED.

Bluetongue disease in Germany (2007-2008): monitoring of entomological aspects.

In the summer of 2006, a bluetongue epidemic started in the border area of Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany, spread within 2 years over large areas of Western and Central Europe, and caused substantial losses in farm ruminants. Especially sheep and cattle were severely affected, leading to a case-fatality ratio of nearly 40% in sheep (Conraths et al., Emerg Inf Dis 15(3):433-435, 2009).

Determination of microvessel density by quantitative real-time PCR in esophageal cancer: correlation with histologic methods, angiogenic growth factor expression, and lymph node metastasis.

Purpose: Angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis are important steps in tumor growth and dissemination and are of prognostic importance in solid tumors. The determination of microvessel density (MVD) by immunohistology is subject to considerable variability between different laboratories and observers. We compared MVD determination by immunohistology and quantitative real-time PCR and correlated the results with clinical variables.