Impact of Tracheal Arborization and Lung Hypoplasia in Repair of Pulmonary Artery Sling in Combination With Long-Segment Tracheal Stenosis.

Reimplantation of the left pulmonary artery (LPA) and slide tracheoplasty has been our standard approach of care for patients with pulmonary artery sling (PAS) and tracheal stenosis. We present our experience, with emphasis on tracheal arborization and hypoplastic lungs; and their impact on long-term outcome of children with PAS and tracheal stenosis. It is a retrospective comparative study.

Percutaneous heart valves demonstrating long-term durability: A case series of Melody valves in the pulmonary position lasting up to 19 years.

It is uncertain how long catheter delivered percutaneous heart valves may last. In congenital cardiology, stenosis and regurgitation of right ventricular to pulmonary artery conduits and valves is common, leading to repeated operations for young patients with concomitant mortality and morbidity. It has also been unclear whether percutaneous pulmonary valves last as long as surgical pulmonary valves.

Sleep Disturbances in Neurological Disease: A Target for Intervention.

Sleep is a biological function required for neurological and general health, but a significant and under-recognized proportion of the population has disturbed sleep. Here, we briefly overview the biology of sleep, sleep requirements over the lifespan, and common sleep disorders. We then turn our attention to five neurological diseases that significantly contribute to global disease burden and neurology practice makeup: epilepsy, headache, ischemic stroke, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease.

Ankyrin-G Heterozygous Knockout Mice Display Increased Sensitivity to Social Defeat Stress.

The locus has been repeatedly found to confer an increased risk for bipolar disorder. codes for Ankyrin-G (Ank-G), a scaffold protein concentrated at axon initial segments, nodes of Ranvier, and dendritic spines, where it organizes voltage-gated sodium and potassium channels and cytoskeletal proteins. Mice with homozygous conditional knockout of Ank-G in the adult forebrain display hyperactivity and reduced anxiety-like behaviors, responsive to mood stabilizers.

Maternal Western-style diet reduces social engagement and increases idiosyncratic behavior in Japanese macaque offspring.

Recent evidence in humans and animals indicates an association between maternal obesity and offspring behavioral outcomes. In humans, increased maternal body mass index has been linked to an increased risk of children receiving a diagnosis of early-emerging neurodevelopmental disorders such as Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and/or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, a limited number of preclinical studies have examined associations between maternal Western-Style Diet (mWSD) exposure and offspring social behavior.

Successful retrieval of embolised Occlutech atrial septal defect occluder from descending aorta in a 4-year-old child using a "mother and child" technique: a case report and literature review.

A 9 mm Occlutech septal occluder Flex II device was retrieved in a 4-year-old 22 kg child; A 6 Fr Cook® Flexor sheath (child) was inserted into a 9 Fr Occlutech® ASD Delivery Set (mother). Once the tip of the smaller sheath was close to the device, a 4 Fr right Judkins catheter was introduced with a snare. The right atrial hub was captured and withdrawn to the level of the 6 Fr sheath which was then withdrawn into the 9 Fr sheath before being removed completely.

Adolescent female rats recovered from the activity-based anorexia display blunted hedonic responding.

Objective: As patients with anorexia nervosa tend to "like" palatable tastants less than controls, we set out to model this preclinically by using the taste reactivity test (TRT) to assess hedonic state in rats following weight restoration from a bout of activity-based anorexia (ABA).

Method: Female rats (n = 31) were surgically implanted with an intraoral catheter, which allowed experimenters to assess baseline TRT to six tastants. Following baseline TRT, animals were either exposed to the activity-based anorexia condition (ABA; 1.

Maternal High-Fat Diet Induces Long-Lasting Defects in Bone Structure in Rat Offspring Through Enhanced Osteoclastogenesis.

Maternal stressors during the prenatal and perinatal periods are associated with increased susceptibility for and severity of chronic disease phenotypes in adult offspring. In this study, we used a rat model of maternal high-fat diet (HFD) exposure during pregnancy and lactation to investigate the impact on skeletal homeostasis in offspring. In the distal femur, young male and female offspring (up to 3 weeks of age) from dams fed a HFD exhibited marked increases in trabecular bone volume relative to offspring from dams fed a chow diet, but this was followed by sustained bone loss.

Repair of pulmonary artery sling with tracheal and intracardiac defects.

Background: Pulmonary artery sling is commonly associated with tracheal stenosis and intracardiac anomalies. While surgical repair is standardized, coexistent anomalies often determine outcomes. With the paucity of risk stratification, this study aimed to review our experience and stratify risk factors for the surgical outcome of complex pulmonary artery sling repair in the presence of airway or intracardiac lesions.

Staging of Surgical Procedures in Comorbid Congenital Tracheal Stenosis and Congenital Cardiovascular Disease.

Background: Comorbid long segment congenital tracheal stenosis and congenital cardiovascular abnormalities in children pose significant challenges with regard to repairing these abnormalities simultaneously or in stages. The aim of this study was to explore whether this combination of abnormalities needs a staged approach for surgical repairs.

Methods: All children who underwent both tracheal and cardiac surgical procedures at a tertiary hospital from 1995 to 2018 were analyzed retrospectively for mortality, ventilation days, postoperative intensive care unit days, mediastinitis, and unplanned reoperation by dividing them into simultaneous repairs (group 1), staged repairs within the same admission (group 2), and staged repairs during different admissions (group 3).

Maternal stressors and the developmental origins of neuropsychiatric risk.

The maternal environment during pregnancy is critical for fetal development and perinatal perturbations can prime offspring disease risk. Here, we briefly review evidence linking two well-characterized maternal stressors - psychosocial stress and infection - to increased neuropsychiatric risk in offspring. In the current climate of increasing obesity and globalization of the Western-style diet, maternal overnutrition emerges as a pressing public health concern.

Melody Valve in Aortic Position to Facilitate Mechanical Circulatory Support as a Bridge to Cardiac Transplantation.

We report a patient with congenital heart disease and end stage heart failure after interventions for congenital heart disease resulting in aortic regurgitation that could not be treated with mechanical support to bridge to transplantation. We used a Melody valve (Medtronic Inc, Minneapolis, MN) in aortic position to achieve aortic competence to allow use of a left ventricular assist device to bridge the patient successfully to cardiac transplantation.

Maternal high-fat diet results in cognitive impairment and hippocampal gene expression changes in rat offspring.

Consumption of a high-fat diet has long been known to increase risk for obesity, diabetes, and the metabolic syndrome. Further evidence strongly suggests that these same metabolic disorders are associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment later in life. Now faced with an expanding global burden of obesity and increasing prevalence of dementia due to an aging population, understanding the effects of high-fat diet consumption on cognition is of increasingly critical importance.

Case report on surgical repair of unusual dissection of arterial duct involving main pulmonary artery in a child with vein of Galen malformation.

Background: Dissection involving patent arterial duct (PDA) extending to main pulmonary artery (MPA) is an extremely rare condition.

Case Summary: We report a case of complex dissection involving PDA extending to MPA, in a child with vein of Galen malformation. This was surgically corrected under deep hypothermic circulatory arrest, and we describe the pathophysiology and surgical rationale in this report.

Nitrated meat products are associated with mania in humans and altered behavior and brain gene expression in rats.

Mania is a serious neuropsychiatric condition associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Previous studies have suggested that environmental exposures can contribute to mania pathogenesis. We measured dietary exposures in a cohort of individuals with mania and other psychiatric disorders as well as in control individuals without a psychiatric disorder.

A toolbox of immunoprecipitation-grade monoclonal antibodies to human transcription factors.

A key component of efforts to address the reproducibility crisis in biomedical research is the development of rigorously validated and renewable protein-affinity reagents. As part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) Protein Capture Reagents Program (PCRP), we have generated a collection of 1,406 highly validated immunoprecipitation- and/or immunoblotting-grade mouse monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to 737 human transcription factors, using an integrated production and validation pipeline. We used HuProt human protein microarrays as a primary validation tool to identify mAbs with high specificity for their cognate targets.

Patient-specific simulations for planning treatment in congenital heart disease.

Patient-specific computational models have been extensively developed over the last decades and applied to investigate a wide range of cardiovascular problems. However, translation of these technologies into clinical applications, such as planning of medical procedures, has been limited to a few single case reports. Hence, the use of patient-specific models is still far from becoming a standard of care in clinical practice.

Change in biventricular function after cone reconstruction of Ebstein's anomaly: an echocardiographic study.

Aims: The Cone reconstruction in Ebstein's anomaly (EA) aims to reduce tricuspid valve regurgitation (TR) and reposition the valve to the anatomic annulus, but post-operative progress of ventricular function is poorly understood. This study evaluated biventricular function after Cone reconstruction using echocardiographic techniques.

Methods And Results: A retrospective study assessing longitudinal change was conducted from 2009 to 2014.

Outcome after transcatheter occlusion of patent ductus arteriosus in infants less than 6 kg: A national study from United Kingdom and Ireland.

Objectives: This study aimed to report our national experience with transcatheter patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) occlusion in infants weighing <6 kg.

Background: The technique of transcatheter PDA closure has evolved in the past two decades and is increasingly used in smaller patients but data on safety and efficacy are limited.

Methods: Patients weighing < 6 kg in whom transcatheter PDA occlusion was attempted in 13 tertiary paediatric cardiology units in the United Kingdom and Ireland were retrospectively analyzed to review the outcome and complications.

Piloting the Use of Patient-Specific Cardiac Models as a Novel Tool to Facilitate Communication During Cinical Consultations.

This pilot study aimed to assess the impact of using patient-specific three-dimensional (3D) models of congenital heart disease (CHD) during consultations with adolescent patients. Adolescent CHD patients (n = 20, age 15-18 years, 15 male) were asked to complete two questionnaires during a cardiology transition clinic at a specialist centre. The first questionnaire was completed just before routine consultation with the cardiologist, the second just after the consultation.

Can finite element models of ballooning procedures yield mechanical response of the cardiovascular site to overexpansion?

Patient-specific numerical models could aid the decision-making process for percutaneous valve selection; in order to be fully informative, they should include patient-specific data of both anatomy and mechanics of the implantation site. This information can be derived from routine clinical imaging during the cardiac cycle, but data on the implantation site mechanical response to device expansion are not routinely available. We aim to derive the implantation site response to overexpansion by monitoring pressure/dimensional changes during balloon sizing procedures and by applying a reverse engineering approach using a validated computational balloon model.