Left atrial systolic force in children: reference values for normal children and changes in cardiovascular disease with left ventricular volume overload or pressure overload.

Background: Recent studies in adults have indicated that left atrial (LA) systolic force (LASF) provides useful information about LA pump function and can be used to predict cardiovascular events. However, normal values of LASF in children are not available, and little is known about atrial function in pediatric patients with heart disease. The objectives of the present study were to provide reference values for LASF in children and to determine LA pump performance in pediatric patients with heart disease using LASF.

Decreased hepatic uptake of gallium-67 citrate in haemophagocytic syndrome occurring concomitantly with capillary leak syndrome.

We describe a 4-year-old girl with haemophagocytic syndrome (HPS) in whom hepatic gallium-67 citrate (Ga-67) uptake was suppressed when the disease was in its acute phase and returned to normal when the disease was in remission. The prominent clinical feature of this case was the occurrence of systemic capillary leak syndrome (CLS). Because extravasation of plasma proteins may be the result of vascular endothelial injury in CLS, loss of hepatic Ga-67 uptake may reflect insult to the hepatic sinusoidal endothelium.