Using Smartphone Wireless ECG Monitoring to Provide Symptom-Rhythm Correlation in the Paediatric Population.

Children frequently present with symptoms of palpitations. These symptoms can occur in isolation or in association with other presentations such as chest pain, presyncope, or syncope. Usually, their symptoms are episodic in occurrence; therefore, establishment of symptom-rhythm correlation is challenging but critical for accurate diagnosis and management.

Medical Management of Infants With Supraventricular Tachycardia: Results From a Registry and Review of the Literature.

Background: Several medication choices are available for acute and prophylactic treatment of refractory supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) in infants. There are almost no controlled trials, and medication choices are not necessarily evidence based. Our objective was to report the effectiveness of management strategies for infant SVT.

Practice Variation in Establishing the Adequacy of Beta-Blockers as an Antiarrhythmic Agent in School-Aged Children and Adolescents.

Background: Beta-blockers (BBs) are commonly prescribed to manage arrhythmias in children and adolescents without any standardised approach to establish BB adequacy. We invited all Canadian pediatric cardiologists to participate in an anonymous survey to understand practice variation in the assessment of BB adequacy in school-aged children and adolescents with arrhythmia or the potential for arrhythmia.

Methods: An electronic survey approved by the Institutional Ethics Board was distributed by e-mail to 96 Canadian pediatric cardiologists who had been active in practice for at least 1 year.

Practice Variation Among Canadian Pediatric Cardiologists in Medical Management of Dilated Ascending Aorta in Patients With Bicuspid Aortic Valve.

Background: Medical therapy is often prescribed to reduce the rate of aortic dilatation and prevent aortic dissection in patients with bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) despite a lack of evidence. We conducted an anonymous survey to gain insight into Canadian clinical practice regarding medical therapy used to slow the progression of aortic dilatation in patients with BAV.

Methods: A questionnaire was sent to 115 paediatric cardiologists and 18 adult congenital heart disease specialists in Canada.

Arrhythmias in Children with Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters (PICCs).

To analyze the prevalence, types, and risk factors for cardiac arrhythmias associated with peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) in children. This is a case-control single center retrospective study. From 3180 PICCs inserted in children (< 18 years old) between 2009 and 2013, cases with new onset arrhythmias were identified.

Taut and click: an unusual left ventricular false tendon.

A case of an asymptomatic child presenting with persistent systolic ejection click and found to have an unusual left ventricular false tendon attached to aortic valve that has not been described previously and may be responsible for the click.

Spontaneous endogenous microbubbles in a child with Berlin heart ventricular assist device.

We report the case of an 11-year-old boy with familial dilated cardiomyopathy on biventricular assist devices (Berlin Heart EXCOR) who was found to have spontaneous endogenous microbubbles in the left ventricular (LV) cavity on routine echocardiogram. Although no major sequelae resulted from the presence of these microbubbles, it did however lead to several noninvasive investigations. To our knowledge, this is a novel observation of spontaneous endogenous microbubbles in a patient with a Berlin Heart.