Clinical features and prognosis of infective endocarditis in children: Insights from a Tunisian multicentre registry.

Background: Infective endocarditis (IE) is a rare condition in the paediatric setting. No data on the epidemiology and prognosis of IE in children are available from North African countries.

Aim: To investigate the epidemiological profile and prognosis of IE in children in Tunisia.

Echinococcosis of the heart: clinical and echocardiographic features in 12 patients.

Unlabelled: We describe the clinical and echocardiographic features in 12 patients with hydatid cyst of the heart who were screened between 1985 and 2001. Presenting symptoms have a wide variability but the main symptom was precordial pain. The electrocardiogram was always abnormal and showed T wave inversion in 8 cases, ST depression in 5 cases, incomplete right bundle-branch block in one case and atrial fibrillation in one case.

[Surgically treated chronic aortic insufficiency: prognostic value of preoperative echocardiography].

Between March 1979 and December 1998, 38 patients with isolated chronic aortic insufficiency underwent aortic valve replacement. The aim of this study is to determine whether preoperative echocardiography parameters are useful in predicting operative results in patients with aortic valve replacement for chronic aortic insufficiency. The global survival is 92% in one year and 89% in ten years.