Preventive role of carvedilol in adriamycin-induced cardiomyopathy.

Background & Objectives: Adriamycin though considered as an effective anticancer drug, leads to irreversible cardiomyopathy (CMP) and congestive heart failure (CHF). The aim of this study was to determine the protective effect of carvedilol in adriamycin (ADR)-induced cardiomyopathy (CMP) in cancer patients.

Methods: Patients with lymphoreticular malignancy in whom ADR therapy was planned were randomized into two groups: carvedilol and control.

Symptomatic myocarditis in Kawasaki disease.

Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute febrile illness of infants and young children that is characterized by a medium vessel vasculitis, most commonly involving the coronary arteries. Though subclinical myocarditis is rather common in KD, symptomatic congestive heart failure is extremely uncommon. The authors report a 9-y-old boy who developed heart failure (ejection fraction 28%) in the acute phase of KD.

Is Kawasaki disease incidence rising in Chandigarh, North India?

Objective: To estimate incidence of Kawasaki disease (KD) over time among children in the city of Chandigarh, North India.

Patients And Methods: We analysed records of all children with KD below 15 years of age at the Pediatric Allergy Immunology Unit, Advanced Pediatrics Centre, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, from January 1994 to December 2008. Diagnosis and treatment of KD were based on American Heart Association criteria.

Sudden death of a young child due to cardiac rhabdomyoma.

This report describes a 1(1/2)-year-old boy who succumbed to acute obstruction of the left ventricular outflow tract by a cardiac rhabdomyoma. He was admitted to have a transient loss of consciousness episode evaluated. A mobile intracardiac mass obstructing the left ventricular outflow tract and protruding into the aortic root during systole was detected by transthoracic echocardiography.

Association of celiac disease with cardiomyopathy and pulmonary hemosiderosis.

Celiac disease is predominantly a disease of the small intestine characterized by chronic malabsorption in genetically susceptible individuals who ingest grains containing gluten, such as wheat, barley and rye. Although previously believed to be uncommon, celiac disease may be present in up to 1% of the general population. Celiac disease is frequently associated with many extraintestinal disorders, but rarely with cardiomyopathy.

Transcatheter closure of persistent unligated vertical vein after TAPVC surgery using the Amplatzer PDA device.

An unligated vertical vein (VV) after TAPVC surgery is likely to require subsequent closure. Reports of transcatheter closure of the VV are largely unpublished. This report details transcatheter closure of a persistent VV using an Amplatzer PDA occluder, following TAPVC repair in early infancy.