Clinicians caring for neonates with congenital heart disease encounter challenges in clinical care as these infants await surgery or are evaluated for further potential interventions. The newborn with heart disease can present with significant pathophysiologic heterogeneity and therefore requires a personalized therapeutic management plan. However, this complex field of neonatal-cardiac hemodynamics can be simplified.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough most causes of death and morbidity in premature infants are related to immune maladaptation, the premature immune system remains poorly understood. We provide a comprehensive single-cell depiction of the neonatal immune system at birth across the spectrum of viable gestational age (GA), ranging from 25 weeks to term. A mass cytometry immunoassay interrogated all major immune cell subsets, including signaling activity and responsiveness to stimulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIsomerism, also referred to as "heterotaxy" is a complex set of anatomic and functional perturbations. One of the most obvious manifestations of isomerism is the disturbance of organ arrangement, such that the thoracic organs are no longer asymmetric on the left and right. We report the case of a 14-year-old female in whom exercise-induced dyspnea led to a late diagnosis of left isomerism complicated by Abernethy malformation and portopulmonary hypertension.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSemin Perinatol
December 2016
Throughout the past few decades, advances in cardiology, neonatal intensive care, and surgical techniques have resulted in a growing cohort of thriving school-aged children with previously lethal complex congenital heart diseases. While survival has increased, there remains significant morbidity following repair including neurodevelopmental sequelae. Compared to children with a structurally normal heart, these infants and children have a higher frequency of abnormalities in tone, feeding, and delayed developmental milestones, as well as challenges with speech and learning disabilities, while a higher proportion of adolescents suffer from problems with processing speed, executive function, and a unique set of medical hardships related to exercise intolerance and obesity, medication burden, and mental health comorbidities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF