Recovery from hypoxic pulmonary hypertension in rats.

To characterize the time frame of changes in pulmonary arterial pressure, right ventricular hypertrophy and morphology of small pulmonary arteries male Wistar rats were exposed to isobaric hypoxia (3 weeks, F1O2 0.1) and then let to recover on air for 1 or 5 weeks. Normoxic animals (group N) served as controls.

Prenatal ultrasound screening of congenital heart disease in an unselected national population: a 21-year experience.

Objective: To determine the prevalence and spectrum of congenital heart disease (CHD) and the impact of a national prenatal ultrasound screening programme on outcome in a well-characterised population.

Design And Setting: A comprehensive registry was created of all paediatric and fetal patients with CHD over a 21-year period (1986-2006) in the Czech Republic. The centralised healthcare system enabled confirmation of prenatal and postnatal findings clinically and by post mortem.

Prevention of mast cell degranulation by disodium cromoglycate attenuates the development of hypoxic pulmonary hypertension in rats exposed to chronic hypoxia.

Background: Chronic hypoxia induces lung vascular remodeling, which results in pulmonary hypertension. Vascular remodeling is associated with collagenolysis and activation of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). One of the possible sources of MMPs in hypoxic lung are mast cells.

N-acetylcysteine inhibits hypoxic pulmonary hypertension most effectively in the initial phase of chronic hypoxia.

Exposure to chronic hypoxia results in hypoxic pulmonary hypertension (HPH). In rats HPH develops during the first two weeks of exposure to hypoxia, then it stabilizes and does not increase in severity. We hypothesize that free radical injury to pulmonary vascular wall is an important mechanism in the early days of the hypoxic exposure.

Demonstration of MyoD1 expression in oncocytic cardiomyopathy: report of two cases and review of the literature.

Oncocytic cardiomyopathy is a rare arrhythmogenic disorder usually associated with female sex, difficult-to-control arrhythmias, or sudden death of infants and children. Morphologically, it is characterized by the presence of oncocytic cells, which are diffusely distributed or form the nodular structures within the myocardium, occasionally involving the valves, with a large number of mitochondria in cytoplasms. We present two cases of oncocytic cardiomyopathy.

Dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate reduces chronic hypoxic pulmonary hypertension in rats.

Pathogenesis of pulmonary hypertension includes vascular smooth muscle cell membrane depolarisation and consequent calcium influx. Usually, calcium-gated potassium channels are activated under such conditions and repolarise the membrane. However, in pulmonary hypertension they are downregulated.

Gender differences in the long-term effects of perinatal hypoxia on pulmonary circulation in rats.

Some effects of perinatal hypoxia on pulmonary circulation are permanent. Since pulmonary vascular sensitivity to hypoxia in adults differs between sexes, we hypothesized that gender-based variability also exists in the long-term effects of perinatal hypoxia. Rats spent 1 wk before and 1 wk after birth in hypoxia (12% O2) and then lived in normoxia.

Metalloproteinase inhibition by Batimastat attenuates pulmonary hypertension in chronically hypoxic rats.

Chronic hypoxia induces lung vascular remodeling, which results in pulmonary hypertension. We hypothesized that a previously found increase in collagenolytic activity of matrix metalloproteinases during hypoxia promotes pulmonary vascular remodeling and hypertension. To test this hypothesis, we exposed rats to hypoxia (fraction of inspired oxygen = 0.

[Morphology of the hypoplastic left heart syndrome from the surgical perspective].

Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) is found in a wide spectrum of changes of the mitral valve, left ventricle and aorta. It represents a critical congenital heart disease with a small left ventricle and stenosis or atresia of the aortic and the mitral valve. The knowledge of a detailed anatomy of this lesion is necessary from the viewpoint of assessment of all possibilities of the surgical treatment, interventional cardiological procedures or foetal cardiac surgery.

CD 68 positivity of the so-called meconium corpuscles in human foetal intestine.

CD 68 antibodies are most frequently used as a reliable paraffin marker of histiocytes. The CD 68 clusters of antibodies recognize a 110-kDa glycoprotein associated with lysosomes and therefore these antibodies show visible reactivity with cells of the monocyte/macrophage lineage. We observed distinct CD 68 positivity of granular intraepithelial inclusions in the small intestine of 12-week-old human foetuses.

[Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (general review)].

The hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) is a critical congenital heart lesion with a small left ventricle in combination with stenosis or atresia of the aortic and the mitral valve. This heart disease is associated with a nearly 100% mortality at neonatal age. Until recently, this heart lesion was considered inoperable because of extremely unfavourable morphology.

[Preparation, storage, transportation and use of heart valves for allotransplantation].

Unlabelled: Thanks to the co-operation with Czech and Slovak Transplant Centres and with some of the Departments of Pathology and Forensic Medicine 274 hearts were collected for allograft heart valves (AHV) processing during 1992-1995. The Cardiac surgeon dissected the aortic valve with the root and the pulmonary artery trunk with the valve. Tissues were antibiotically (ATB) sterilised in cultivation medium E 199 (24 hours at 37 degrees C).

[Harvesting the heart for preparation of heart valve allografts].

Allograft heart valves (AHV) are believed to be optimal prosthetic material for surgical aortic valve and/or root replacement and an ideal valved conduit for repair of some complex congenital heart defects. At the University Hospital Motol AHV were clinically used since 1983 (annually no more than twenty were collected). 1991 the Paediatric Transplant Centre was established and was entrusted to organise cadaveric hearts harvesting and to introduce the standard technology of AHV processing and banking.

Congenital absence of aortic and pulmonary valve in a fetus with severe heart failure.

A case of congenital absence of both aortic and pulmonary valves with severe heart failure detected prenatally by cross-sectional and pulsed and colour Doppler echocardiography is reported in small for gestational age male fetus in 17th week of gestation. Additional double outlet right ventricle, hypoplastic left ventricle, and ventricular septal defect, as well as multiple extracardiac anomalies, were found by prenatal echocardiographic investigation and confirmed by necropsy examination. Retrograde diastolic Doppler waveforms retrieved from pulmonary artery, aorta, and umbilical arteries revealed massive insufficiency throughout both the great arteries, which eliminated diastolic placental perfusion, documented by absent anterograde diastolic flow in the umbilical vein.

[Morphological spectrum of atrioventricular septal defects].

Morphology of atrioventricular septal defect was studied on 73 heart specimens. All of them had a defect of atrioventricular septum and adjoining parts of atrial and ventricular septum, a shortening of inflow parts of both ventricles, a malformation of atrioventricular valves and changed position of aortic valve. There was a great variability of all the studied structures and nearly continuous spectrum of specimens was found as for the ventricles' size, localization and diameter of the defect, communication between atria and ventricles, anatomy of the left ventricle outflow tract as well as the whole atrioventricular valvular apparatus and occurrence of associated heart malformations.

Long-term effects of prenatal indomethacin administration on the pulmonary circulation in rats.

Mechanical properties of the adult pulmonary vasculature are affected by perinatal experience of hypoxic pulmonary hypertension. In the present study, we followed the long-term effects of perinatal pulmonary hypertension induced by means other than hypoxia in rats. Daily injections of indomethacin (1 mg.

[Anomalies in the development of the sinus venosus as a probable cause of heart rhythm disorders and fetal hydrops].

Prenatal ultrasonic examination during the 28th week of gestation revealed a transient disorder of the cardiac rhythm in the foetus. Subsequently repeated echocardiographic examinations confirmed foetal hydrops which together with signs of EP gestosis of the mother was an indication to terminate pregnancy during the 29th week by Caesarean section. In the severely hydropic male foetus in the enlarged anterior wall of the right atrium an atypical vascular canal was found which was in the close vicinity of the sinoatrial node.

Intranodal "amianthoid" myofibroblastoma. Report of six cases immunohistochemical and electron microscopical study.

Six cases of intranodal amianthoid myofibroblastomas are reported. Immunohistochemically the tumors were actin positive and S-100 protein and desmin negative. Intracytoplasmatic, actin-rich bodies, previously found to be a characteristic feature of this tumor, were identified as cytoplasmatic extensions filled with microfilaments at an ultrastructural level.

Angiocardiographic diagnosis of ventricular septal defect localization in double outlet right ventricle.

Children with double outlet right ventricle, aged 3 months to 23.5 years, were examined to assess the possibility of angiocardiographic diagnosis of defect localization. It was found angiocardiography allows satisfactory localization of the defect in question.

[Clinical morphology of ventricular septal defects].

The authors give an account of morphological characteristics of different types of ventricular septal defects. They demonstrate their typical pictures obtained by angiocardiographic and echocardiographic examination. The investigation is based on analysis of 295 children with a cinematographically confirmed diagnosis and 75 necroptic preparations of the heart with a ventricular septal defects.

[The infundibular septum in congenital heart defects. Morphologico-angiocardiographic study of the double-outlet heart ventricle].

The authors investigated the infundibular septum in 40 archival heart preparations with a double outlet right ventricle. They compared the post-mortem findings with the previous angiocardiographic examination and the skiagram of the preparation made post mortem. They present also the corresponding findings obtained by echocardiography.

[Morphological and angiocardiographic study of atrioventricular septal defects].

A group of post-mortem specimens of 82 hearts with a defect of the atrioventricular septum (atrioventricular canal) was retrospectively examined with special attention to the morphology of the defect in relation to the left atrioventricular anastomosis. In 42 preparations the finding was compared with previous angiocardiography and post-mortally with X-ray pictures of the specimens. Correlation of the findings revealed malformation of the left atrioventricular orifice as part of a complex malformation affecting the valvular apparatus in conjunction with the atrioventricular septal defect.

[Tracheobronchography in neonates and infants with obstruction of the upper respiratory tract].

In the period of 1980 to 1989 the authors performed contrast examinations of tracheobronchial tree in 38 children up to one year of age, three of them being newborns. In 29 examined children (74.4%) there was an anatomical defect causing the obstruction of upper respiratory pathways.

[Prenatal diagnosis of malformation of the heart using echocardiography].

Fetal echocardiographic findings were compared with autoptic ones in 11 from 22 fetuses and neonates with prenatal diagnosis of a congenital heart malformation. Pregnancy was interrupted on mother's desire in 7 from these 11 cases and completed by delivery in 4 cases. Diagnosed heart anomalies included ectopia (2), double outlet right ventricle with other malformations (2), tetralogy of Fallot (1), complete atrioventricular canal (1), syndrome of visceral symmetry (levoisomerism) with aortic atresia and common atrium as well as ventricle (1) and pulmonary atresia with a dysplastic tricuspid valve (1).