Race and Prevalence of Large Bowel Polyps Among the Low-Income and Uninsured in South Carolina.

Background: Compared to whites, blacks have higher colorectal cancer incidence and mortality rates and are at greater risk for early-onset disease. The reasons for this racial disparity are poorly understood, but one contributing factor could be differences in access to high-quality screening and medical care.

Aims: The present study was carried out to assess whether a racial difference in prevalence of large bowel polyps persists within a poor and uninsured population (n = 233, 124 blacks, 91 whites, 18 other) undergoing screening colonoscopy.

Unusual cause of myocardial ischemia in an infant.

Abnormal coronary artery anatomy should be ruled out in any patient with myocardial dysfunction and an abnormal electrocardiogram. The reported etiologies of infantile myocardial ischemia are abnormalities of coronary arteries, perinatal asphyxia, umbilical catheterization, and myocarditis. Generalized arterial calcification of infancy, although rare, should be considered in the differential diagnosis of infantile myocardial ischemia if coronary artery origin is found to be normal on echocardiography.

Initial experience with novel mobile cardiac outpatient telemetry for children and adolescents with suspected arrhythmia.

Objectives: To report use of a novel mobile cardiac outpatient telemetry (MCOT) system for evaluation of children and adolescents with suspected cardiac arrhythmia.

Design: Prospective data collection and retrospective analysis.

Setting: All patients who received MCOT from The Children's Hospital at the Cleveland Clinic between 1/14/04 and 2/12/05 were screened.

Percutaneous pericardial instrumentation for catheter ablation of focal atrial tachycardias arising from the left atrial appendage.

Focal atrial tachycardias originating from the left atrial appendage present unique anatomic challenges for successful ablation. We describe the role of minimally invasive percutaneous epicardial mapping and ablation in the management of two patients with ectopic atrial tachycardias arising from the left atrial appendage following failure of a conventional endocardial approach to achieve cure.

KCNQ1 mutations in patients with a family history of lethal cardiac arrhythmias and sudden death.

Long QT syndrome (LQTS) is the prototype of the cardiac ion channelopathies which cause syncope and sudden death. LQT1, due to mutations of KCNQ1 (KVLQT1), is the most common form. This study describes the genotype-phenotype characteristics in 10 families with mutations of KCNQ1, including 5 novel mutations.