Risk of Congenital Heart Disease in Newborns with Prenatal Exposure to Anti-depressant Medications.

Introduction It is uncertain whether the use of selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) and other anti-depressants during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of congenital heart disease (CHD) in newborn. There have been various studies showing a number of adverse outcomes, including gestational hypertension, reduced birth weight, altered neonatal pain responses and persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn with exposure to anti-depressant medications. There have been very few longitudinal studies showing CHD association with the use of anti-depressant medications.

Computational fluid dynamics simulations as a complementary study for transcatheter endovascular stent implantation for re-coarctation of the aorta associated with minimal pressure drop: an aneurysmal ductal ampulla with aortic isthmus narrowing.

Background: Transcatheter stent implantation has been employed to treat re-coarctation of the aorta in adolescents and young adults. The aim of this work is to use computational fluid dynamics to characterise haemodynamics associated with re-coarctation involving an aneurysmal ductal ampulla and aortic isthmus narrowing, which created minimal pressure drop, and to incorporate computational fluid dynamics's findings into decision-making concerning catheter-directed treatment.

Methods: Computational fluid dynamics permits numerically solving the Navier-Stokes equations governing pulsatile flow in the aorta, based on patient-specific data.

Polyvalvular heart disease syndrome.

An adult case of polyvalvular heart disease syndrome diagnosed in an adult is presented. The characteristic facies and echocardiographic features of this rare autosomal dominant connective tissue disorder are presented.

Adult presentation of ALCAPA: Echo and CT diagnosis.

A healthy 20-year-old male presented with aborted sudden death. Both thoracic echocardiography and cardiac computed tomographic angiography demonstrated the characteristic findings of ALCAPA noting a dilated and tortuous right coronary artery, dilated coronary collateral arteries within the interventricular septum or along the surface of the heart, and visualization of the left coronary artery origin from the posterior aspect of the main pulmonary artery. Both imaging modalities demonstrated all three characteristic findings of this rare coronary anomaly and served as complementary imaging studies for surgical correction.

Computational fluid dynamics characterization of pulsatile flow in central and Sano shunts connected to the pulmonary arteries: importance of graft angulation on shear stress-induced, platelet-mediated thrombosis.

Objectives: Central (aorta) and Sano (right ventricle)-to-pulmonary artery (PA) shunts, palliative operations for infants with complex heart defects, can develop life-threatening thrombosis. We employed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to study pulsatile flow in these shunts, with the goal to identify haemodynamic characteristics conducive to thrombus formation.

Methods: CFD, using the finite volume method with cardiac catheterization data, and computer simulations, based on angiography, were employed to determine flow-velocity field, wall shear stress (WSS) profile and oscillatory shear index (OSI).