Interruption of the Ascending Aorta-Biventricular Surgical Repair.

Interruption of the ascending aorta is an extremely rare anomaly defined by a point of interruption between the intrapericardial and extrapericardial aorta and can be explained by developmental errors proximal to the embryologic right aortic sac. Herein, we present a case of interruption of the ascending aorta and describe a successful biventricular surgical repair of this unique anomaly.

Increased Hepatic Stiffness in Young Adults After Biventricular Repair of Congenital Heart Disease.

Background: This study evaluated hepatic stiffness by shear wave elastography to investigate subclinical hepatic changes in a cohort of patients with congenital biventricular heart disease (BHD).

Methods: The BHD patients and age-matched healthy controls were prospectively recruited for hepatic ultrasonography and shear wave elastography. Real-time B-mode imaging with Doppler was performed for celiac axis, superior mesenteric artery, and main portal vein, and hepatic shear wave elastography was assessed.

Increased hepatic stiffness as consequence of high hepatic afterload in the Fontan circulation: a vascular Doppler and elastography study.

Unlabelled: Hepatic dysfunction is a recognized complication after Fontan palliation of congenital heart disease. We sought to quantitatively measure hepatic stiffness and vascular Doppler indices using ultrasound (US) and shear wave elastography (SWE) in a Fontan cohort. Subjects were prospectively recruited for echocardiography and real-time hepatic duplex US with SWE for hepatic stiffness (kPa).

Outcomes of congenital diaphragmatic hernia in the modern era of management.

Objective: To identify clinical factors associated with pulmonary hypertension (PH) and mortality in patients with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH).

Study Design: A prospective cohort of neonates with a diaphragm defect identified at 1 of 7 collaborating medical centers was studied. Echocardiograms were performed at 1 month and 3 months of age and analyzed at a central core by 2 cardiologists independently.

Patent ductus arteriosus closure using the Amplatzer® vascular plug II for all anatomic variants.

Objectives: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of the Amplatzer® Vascular Plug II (AVPII) for closure of the patent ductus arteriosus (PDA).

Background: The PDA has significant anatomic variation. No device has proven applicable to all PDAs.

Safety of cardiac magnetic resonance and contrast angiography for neonates and small infants: a 10-year single-institution experience.

Background: With increasing applications of cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) for evaluation of congenital heart disease (CHD), safety of this technology in the very young is of particular interest.

Objective: We report our 10-year experience with CMR in neonates and small infants with particular focus on the safety profile and incidence of adverse events (AEs).

Materials And Methods: We reviewed clinical, anesthesia and nursing records of all children ≤120 days of age who underwent CMR.

Reduced global longitudinal and radial strain with normal left ventricular ejection fraction late after effective repair of aortic coarctation: a CMR feature tracking study.

We sought to determine whether global and regional left ventricular (LV) strain parameters were altered in repaired coarctation of the aorta (COA) with normal LV ejection fraction (EF) when compared with healthy adult controls, and whether such alterations were related to LV hypertrophy (LVH). We identified 81 patients after COA repair (31 female, age 25 ± 8.5 years) with inclusion criteria at follow-up CMR of: age ≥13 years, time post-repair ≥10 years, no aortic valve disease, LV-EF >50%).

Ultrasound contrast and real-time perfusion in conjunction with supine bicycle stress echocardiography for comprehensive evaluation of surgically corrected congenital heart disease.

Aims: We sought to evaluate the efficacy of ultrasound contrast (UC) and low mechanical index real-time perfusion (RTP) in the haemodynamic and anatomic assessment of repaired congenital heart disease (CHD) at rest and during supine bicycle stress echocardiography (BSE).

Methods And Results: Patients with CHD (n = 51, median age 21.5 years) were prospectively studied.

Sonothrombolysis of intra-catheter aged venous thrombi using microbubble enhancement and guided three-dimensional ultrasound pulses.

Background: Central venous and arterial catheters are a major source of thromboembolic disease in children. The investigators hypothesized that guided high-mechanical index (MI) impulses from diagnostic three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound during an intravenous microbubble infusion could dissolve these thrombi.

Methods: An in vitro system simulating intracatheter thrombi was created and then treated with guided high-MI impulses from 3D ultrasound, using low-MI microbubble sensitive imaging pulse sequence schemes to detect the microbubbles.

Is combined atrial volumetrics by two-dimensional echocardiography a suitable measure for quantitative assessment of the hemodynamic significance of patent ductus arteriosus in neonates and infants?

Background: Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is a common cardiac problem in neonates and infants, but determination of its hemodynamic significance can be challenging. We hypothesized that combined left (LA) and right atrial (RA) volumes physiologically best reflect hemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus (HSPDA), and utilized two-dimensional echocardiography (2DE) derived atrial volumes to test this hypothesis.

Methods: 2DE examinations with good-quality images in 138 neonates <3 months corrected gestational age with PDA, and 50 normal neonates without PDA were selected.

Coarctation of a right-sided aortic arch and an unusual vascular ring.

The clinical presentation, diagnostic workup, and surgical therapy of a coarcted right-sided aortic arch associated with a vascular ring are described.