Publications by authors named "Paolo Versacci"

Objective: Syncope is defined as a spontaneous and transient loss of consciousness and postural tone due to brief and reversible cerebral hypoperfusion. This review aimed to summarize the research findings regarding the psychological correlates associated with pediatric syncope. Moreover, the study aimed to deepen the understanding of the relationship between psychological disorders and the onset of syncopal episodes in childhood, focusing on clinical features and different clinical classifications.

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  • - Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI), or "brittle bone disease," is a rare genetic disorder that causes fragile bones and potential deformities due to defects in collagen type I, requiring comprehensive care throughout a patient's life stages.
  • - Treatment primarily focuses on supportive measures, including medications like bisphosphonates and various orthopedic surgeries, which have shown positive results, especially in children, but there is a notable lack of guidelines for adults transitioning from pediatric care.
  • - A systematic review of existing literature emphasizes the need for a multifaceted approach by various medical specialists to enhance the transition from pediatric to adult care for OI patients, stressing the importance of education, personalized plans, and ongoing follow-up.
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  • - A notable number of patients with heterotaxy experience mismatched arrangements in their abdominal organs, lungs, and atrial structures, highlighting intriguing variations in the influence of ciliary and laterality genes on different body parts.
  • - Defects in these genes, which typically cause conditions like situs inversus and heterotaxy, can sometimes affect different sections of the heart separately, even when the overall arrangement of organs appears normal (situs solitus).
  • - Some patients with typical organ arrangement but with heart conditions like transposition of great arteries exhibit changes due to partial effects of laterality gene alterations, demonstrating the complex relationship between genetic defects and organ positioning.
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To date, the role of NODAL in normal and abnormal L-R asymmetry has been well established. In a recent paper, mutations of this gene have been reported in heterotaxy but also in transposition with D- or L-ventricular loop. The effects of NODAL and other laterality genes can be recognized separately in all three cardiac segments: for topology and septation of the atria, for ventricular looping, and for spiralization and alignment of the great arteries.

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  • Sotos syndrome is a genetic condition marked by traits like overgrowth, advanced bone age, and learning difficulties, mainly caused by genetic mutations in a gene on chromosome 5q35.
  • The study examined 45 patients with Sotos syndrome and found that about 60% had heart defects, with the most common issues being septal defects and other vascular anomalies.
  • The prevalence of heart defects in these patients was higher than previously reported in literature, highlighting the need for thorough heart evaluations in individuals with Sotos syndrome.
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Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a rare genetic disorder caused by abnormal collagen type I production. While OI is primarily characterized by bone fragility and deformities, patients also have extraskeletal manifestations, including an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the literature on cardiovascular diseases in OI patients in order to raise awareness of this understudied clinical aspect of OI and support clinical guidelines.

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Background And Objective: Congenital heart defects (CHD) represent the most frequent human birth defects, occurring in almost 1% of all live newborns. Understanding the effects of gender in the prevalence of CHD has a key role in defining personalized prevention, disease identification, prognosis definition and individualized therapeutic strategies. Recently, the attempt to achieve a holistic approach to patients with CHD cannot be separated from accounting for existing gender differences.

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Chromosome 9p deletion syndrome is a rare autosomal dominant disorder presenting with a broad spectrum of clinical features, including congenital heart defects (CHDs). To date, studies focused on a deep characterization of cardiac phenotype and function associated with this condition are lacking. We conducted a multicentric prospective observational study on a cohort of 10 patients with a molecular diagnosis of 9p deletion syndrome, providing a complete cardiological assessment through conventional echocardiography and tissue Doppler imaging echo modality.

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  • * Researchers evaluated AR dimensions in 74 patients, finding that 32.4% exhibited ARD, with a notable correlation between ARD severity and skeletal/connective tissue disorders.
  • * The study concluded that isolated ARD is prevalent in this population, and regular cardiac monitoring is essential for improving long-term health outcomes, despite unclear risk factors and complications.
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The cardiovascular phenotype associated with RASopathies has expanded far beyond the original descriptions of pulmonary valve stenosis by Dr Jaqueline Noonan in 1968 and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy by Hirsch et al. in 1975. Because of the common underlying RAS/MAPK pathway dysregulation, RASopathy syndromes usually present with a typical spectrum of overlapping cardiovascular anomalies, although less common cardiac defects can occur.

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Background: Diagnosis and treatment of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) have led to improved life expectancy and achievement of adulthood.

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Background: The contemporaneous presence of immune defects and heart diseases in patients with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.3DS) might represent risk factors for severe coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19).

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Congenital heart diseases represent one of the hallmarks of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. In particular, conotruncal heart defects are the most frequent cardiac malformations and are often associated with other specific additional cardiovascular anomalies.

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Crossed pulmonary arteries (CPAs) represent an uncommon anatomic variant, usually associated with some specific syndromes and conotruncal defects. This finding has been described in 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11.

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Hybrid single-stage repair of Kommerell's diverticulum in a right aortic arch.Aortic arch anomalies, isolated or associated with congenital heart defects, are cardiovascular manifestations frequently associated with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.

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Congenital heart defects (CHDs) are known to occur in 9%-25% of patients with KBG syndrome. In this study we analyzed the prevalence and anatomic types of CHDs in 46 personal patients with KBG syndrome, carrying pathogenetic variants in ANKRD11 or 16q24.3 deletion, and reviewed CHDs in patients with molecular diagnosis of KBG syndrome from the literature.

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DiGeorge syndrome (DGS), also known as "22q11.2 deletion syndrome" (22q11DS) (MIM # 192430 # 188400), is a genetic disorder caused by hemizygous microdeletion of the long arm of chromosome 22. In the last decades, the introduction of fluorescence in situ hybridization assays, and in selected cases the use of multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification, has allowed the detection of chromosomal microdeletions that could not be previously identified using standard karyotype analysis.

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Background: 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11DS) represents one of the most important genetic risk factors for schizophrenia (SCZ) and a reliable biological model to study endophenotypic characters of SCZ. The aim of the study was to investigate Social Cognition impairments in subjects with 22q11.

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To assess the impact of regurgitant jet direction on left ventricular function and intraventricular hemodynamics in asymptomatic patients with bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) and mild aortic valve regurgitation (AR), using cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) feature tracking and 4D flow imaging. Fifty BAV individuals were retrospectively selected: 15 with mild AR and posterior regurgitation jet (Group-PJ), 15 with regurgitant jet in other directions (Group-nPJ) and 20 with no regurgitation (Controls). CMR protocol included cine steady state free precession (SSFP) sequences and 4D Flow imaging covering the entire left ventricle (LV) cavity and the aortic root.

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Recent advances in understanding the genetic causes and anatomic subtypes of cardiac defects have revealed new links between genetic etiology, pathogenetic mechanisms and cardiac phenotypes. Although the same genetic background can result in different cardiac phenotypes, and similar phenotypes can be caused by different genetic causes, researchers' effort to identify specific genotype-phenotype correlations remains crucial. In this review, we report on recent advances in the cardiac pathogenesis of three genetic diseases: Down syndrome, del22q11.

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Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS) is a genetic disorder characterized by multiple congenital anomalies, sleep disturbance, behavioral impairment, and intellectual disability. Its genetic cause has been defined as an alteration in the Retinoic Acid-Induced 1 gene. Cardiac anomalies have been reported since the first description of this condition in patients with 17p11.

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Purpose: Recent studies have identified suggestive prenatal features of RASopathies (e.g., increased nuchal translucency [NT], cystic hygroma [CH], hydrops, effusions, congenital heart diseases [CHD], polyhydramnios, renal anomalies).

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