Differentiation of COVID-19-Associated Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome From Kawasaki Disease With the Use of Cardiac Biomarkers.

Background: Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) after COVID-19 shares clinical similarities to Kawasaki disease (KD). We sought to determine whether cardiac biomarker levels differentiate MIS-C from KD and their association with cardiac involvement.

Methods: Subjects included 38 MIS-C patients with confirmed prior COVID-19 and 32 prepandemic and 38 contemporaneous KD patients with no evidence of COVID-19.

Off-Pump Double Coronary Artery Bypass in a 14-Year-Old With Kawasaki Disease.

A 14-year-old male patient with a history of atypical Kawasaki disease at age 2 presents with triple vessel giant coronary aneurysms. Over the last several years, he began experiencing angina and dyspnea on exertion, which was a result of fully occluded right coronary and left circumflex arteries and 90% stenosis in the left anterior descending artery. He underwent off-pump coronary artery bypass using the left and right internal mammary arteries.

Perspective on precision medicine in paediatric heart failure.

In 2015, President Obama launched the Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI), which introduced new funding to a method of research with the potential to study rare and complex diseases. Paediatric heart failure, a heterogeneous syndrome affecting approximately 1 in 100000 children, is one such condition in which precision medicine techniques may be applied with great benefit. Current heart failure therapies target downstream effects of heart failure rather than the underlying cause of heart failure.

Microinjection Technique for Assessment of Gap Junction Function.

Gap junctions are essential for the proper function of many native mammalian tissues including neurons, cardiomyocytes, embryonic tissues, and muscle. Assessing these channels is therefore fundamental to understanding disease pathophysiology, developing therapies for a multitude of acquired and genetic conditions, and providing novel approaches to drug delivery and cellular communication. Microinjection is a robust, albeit difficult, technique, which provides considerable information that is superior to many of the simpler techniques due to its ability to isolate cells, quantify kinetics, and allow cross-comparison of multiple cell lines.

TMEM43 mutation p.S358L alters intercalated disc protein expression and reduces conduction velocity in arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy.

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is a myocardial disease characterized by fibro-fatty replacement of myocardium in the right ventricular free wall and frequently results in life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. A heterozygous missense mutation in the transmembrane protein 43 (TMEM43) gene, p.S358L, has been genetically identified to cause autosomal dominant ARVC type 5 in a founder population from the island of Newfoundland, Canada.

Robotic adherent cell injection for characterizing cell-cell communication.

Compared to robotic injection of suspended cells (e.g., embryos and oocytes), fewer attempts were made to automate the injection of adherent cells (e.

High-throughput measurement of gap junctional intercellular communication.

Gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) is a critical part of cellular activities and is necessary for electrical propagation among contacting cells. Disorders of gap junctions are a major cause for cardiac arrhythmias. Dye transfer through microinjection is a conventional technique for measuring GJIC.

Cell surface expression of human ether-a-go-go-related gene (hERG) channels is regulated by caveolin-3 protein via the ubiquitin ligase Nedd4-2.

The human ether-a-go-go-related gene (hERG) encodes the rapidly activating delayed rectifier potassium channel (I(Kr)) which plays an important role in cardiac repolarization. A reduction or increase in hERG current can cause long or short QT syndrome, respectively, leading to fatal cardiac arrhythmias. The channel density in the plasma membrane is a key determinant of the whole cell current amplitude.

Interaction between the cardiac rapidly (IKr) and slowly (IKs) activating delayed rectifier potassium channels revealed by low K+-induced hERG endocytic degradation.

Cardiac repolarization is controlled by the rapidly (I(Kr)) and slowly (I(Ks)) activating delayed rectifier potassium channels. The human ether-a-go-go-related gene (hERG) encodes I(Kr), whereas KCNQ1 and KCNE1 together encode I(Ks). Decreases in I(Kr) or I(Ks) cause long QT syndrome (LQTS), a cardiac disorder with a high risk of sudden death.