"Form follows function": the developmental morphology of the cardiac atria.

Although the heart atria have a lesser functional importance than the ventricles, atria play an important role in the pathophysiology of heart failure and supraventricular arrhythmias, particularly atrial fibrillation. In addition, knowledge of atrial morphology recently became more relevant as cardiac electrophysiology and interventional procedures in the atria gained an increasingly significant role in the clinical management of patients with heart disease. The atrial chambers are thin-walled, and several vessels enter at the level of the atria.

How to assess and treat right ventricular electromechanical dyssynchrony in post-repair tetralogy of Fallot: insights from imaging, invasive studies, and computational modelling.

Background And Aims: Right bundle branch block (RBBB) and resulting right ventricular (RV) electromechanical discoordination are thought to play a role in the disease process of subpulmonary RV dysfunction that frequently occur post-repair tetralogy of Fallot (ToF). We sought to describe this disease entity, the role of pulmonary re-valvulation, and the potential added value of RV cardiac resynchronization therapy (RV-CRT).

Methods: Two patients with repaired ToF, complete RBBB, pulmonary regurgitation, and significantly decreased RV function underwent echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance, and an invasive study to evaluate the potential for RV-CRT as part of the management strategy.

Pregnancy Termination and Postnatal Major Congenital Heart Defect Prevalence After Introduction of Prenatal Cardiac Screening.

Importance: Prenatal cardiac screening of the first and second trimesters has had a major impact on postnatal prevalence of congenital heart defects (CHDs), rates of termination of pregnancy (TOP), and outcomes among children born alive with CHDs.

Objective: To examine the prenatal and postnatal incidence of major CHDs (ie, necessitating intervention within the first year of life), detection rate trends, rates of TOP, and the association of cardiac screening with postnatal outcomes.

Design, Settings, And Participants: In this cross-sectional study, 3827 fetuses with antenatally diagnosed major CHDs in the Czech Republic (population 10.

Primary cardiac lipoblastoma of the right atrium.

Lipoblastoma is a rare neoplasm of the embryonal white fat. It occurs most commonly in children under the age of 3 years and usually inflicts the superficial soft tissues of trunk and extremities. We present the case of a 3-year-old male patient with a successfully resected primary cardiac right-atrial lipoblastoma with COL1A2::PLAG1 gene fusion.