Imaging of cerebral complications of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in infants with congenital heart disease - ultrasound with multimodality correlation.

Cranial ultrasound on neonatal intensive care units is generally performed by intensive care physicians, but radiologists often provide this crucial bedside test to children on specialist paediatric cardiac intensive care units. On a paediatric cardiac intensive care unit, complex congenital cardiac conditions are commonly encountered in both pre- and postoperative scenarios, often with the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), which both increases the risks of a number of neurologic complications and results in significant changes in vascular physiology. The aim of this pictorial essay is to discuss cranial ultrasound technique, demonstrate the changes in Doppler flow profiles resulting from veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and congenital cardiac conditions, and illustrate commonly encountered intracranial complications of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support in congenital cardiac care.

Metabolic Profiling of Children Undergoing Surgery for Congenital Heart Disease.

Objective: Inflammation and metabolism are closely interlinked. Both undergo significant dysregulation following surgery for congenital heart disease, contributing to organ failure and morbidity. In this study, we combined cytokine and metabolic profiling to examine the effect of postoperative tight glycemic control compared with conventional blood glucose management on metabolic and inflammatory outcomes in children undergoing congenital heart surgery.

[Bacteraemia risk criteria in the paediatric febrile neutropenic cancer patient].

Introduction: Cancer patients with febrile neutropenia are not a homogeneous group with respect to risk of bacterial infections. Some authors have proposed that febrile cancer patients with low risk factors of bacteraemia could be managed at home with domiciliary antibiotic treatment. The objectives are: to determine the incidence of bacteraemia in our cancer patients who have febrile neutropenia; and to identify the low-risk factors so that the patients can be managed at home using domiciliary antibiotic treatment.