Subtle myocardial effects of rheumatic heart disease in children are revealed earlier with two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography.

Objective: Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is the most common cause of acquired heart disease in developing countries and remains a serious public health problem. In the subclinical course of carditis, the absence of typical symptoms and the normal range of classical echocardiographic measurements used to evaluate cardiac functions have required new echocardiographic methods and parameters. Previous studies regarding rheumatic heart disease in children and adults have shown that strain patterns obtained by speckle tracking echocardiography, are in fact affected although left ventricular systolic functions are preserved, yet some studies have suggested otherwise.

An unusual etiology in an 8-year-old girl with chest pain and elevated troponin-I.

Acute post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis (APSGN) is the most common glomerulonephritis of childhood, and clinical presentation can vary widely. This case report presents an atypical manifestation of APSGN in an 8-year-old female patient with pleuritic chest pain and elevated troponin-I, despite lacking classical kidney symptoms. Imaging studies showed cardiomegaly and interstitial lung opacities.

Does Iron Deficiency Affect the Heart in Children?

Introduction: It is well known that serum iron parameters are closely related to cardiovascular health. Iron deficiency may lead to significant cardiac problems, such as atrioventricular conduction abnormalities, and systolic and/or diastolic dysfunction. Studies related to the effect of iron deficiency on cardiac functions are limited in children.

Assessment of Autonomic Nervous System in Children with Celiac Disease: A Heart Rate Variability Study.

Objective: We evaluated the activity of autonomic nervous system in children with celiac disease by using heart rate variability (HRV) analysis.

Methods: HRV parameters of 37 children with celiac disease were compared to 36 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. None of the participants had a systemic, central or peripheral neurological disease.

Echocardiographic assessment of children participating in regular sports training.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of a well-controlled endurance training program on cardiac functions and structures in healthy children and to define whether training hours per week and type of sports affect the training-induced cardiovascular response.

Methods: Echocardiographic recordings were obtained in 126 children who systematically participated in sports training for at least 1 year (study group), and the results were compared with the values obtained in 62 normal children who did not actively engage in any sports activity (control group). The two groups were comparable for age, sex, and body mass index.

Anxiety, depression, and behavioural rating scales in children with non-cardiac chest pain.

Introduction: Chest pain is the second most common reason for referral to paediatric cardiologists after benign heart murmurs. Aetiology frequently depends on non-cardiac reasons. In addition, individuals may experience non-cardiac chest pain which is idiopathic or of unknown origin.

Subclinical rheumatic heart disease: A single center experience.

Objective: Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is still a major cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries. The aim of the present study was to investigate asymptomatic RHD cases diagnosed by echocardiography without any acute rheumatic fever (ARF) history and to present the follow-up results.

Methods: Children who had been admitted to the pediatric cardiology department between 2011 and 2017 for various reasons (e.

Sensitive Cardiac Troponins: Could They Be New Biomarkers in Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension Due to Congenital Heart Disease?

To analyze the role of sensitive cardiac troponin I (scTnI) and high-sensitive troponin T (hscTnT) in the determination of myocardial injury caused by volume and pressure load due to pulmonary hypertension (PH) and to investigate if these markers may be useful in the management of PH in childhood. Twenty-eight patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) with left to right shunt and PH, 29 patients with CHD with left to right shunt but without PH, and 18 healthy children, in total 75 individuals, were included in the study. All cases were aged between 4 and 36 months.

The effects of cigarette smoking on ventricular repolarization in adolescents.

Objective: To assess the association between cigarette smoking and ventricular arrhythmias in adolescents. Novel electrocardiographic parameters -Tp-e interval, as well as Tpe/QT and Tpe/QTc ratios - were used to make this assessment.

Methods: The study population consisted of 87 subjects aged between 16-19 years.

Massive Pericardial Effusion and Tamponade Can Be a First Sign of Familial Mediterranean Fever.

Cardiac involvement is a rare initial presentation of familial Mediterranean fever (FMF). We described 2 children with massive pericardial effusion and cardiac tamponade, who were later diagnosed as having FMF based on clinical and laboratory findings. Therefore, in children presenting with massive pericardial effusion, FMF should be considered as one of the differential diagnoses.

Symptomatic Fetal-Type Cardiac Rhabdomyoma.

Rhabdomyomas are the most common primary cardiac tumors, especially seen during early periods of childhood. Fetaltype rhabdomyoma is a benign tumor described almost always in extracardiac locations. Although the natural history of the cardiac rhabdomyoma is to regress, the behaviour of the fetal-type rhabdomyomas when present in the heart is unknown with respect to its infrequency.

Aneurysm of the muscular septum associated with Wolf-Parkinson-White syndrome presenting as dilated cardiomyopathy; A report of two cases.

Muscular septal aneurysms are extremely rare without a ventricular septal defect and are diagnosed accidentally in most cases. Reported cases generally have rhythm disturbance or electrocardiographic findings of Wolf-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome. Presently described are 2 cases of ventricular septal aneurysm associated with WPW syndrome, which presented as dilated cardiomyopathy.

Persistent left superior vena cava accompanying congenital heart disease in children: Experience of a tertiary care center.

Background: This study focuses on determining concomitant persistent left superior vena cava (SVC) in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD).

Methods: Between 2005 and 2012, a total of 2.663 patients with CHD, 88 (3.

Regression of symptomatic multiple cardiac rhabdomyomas associated with tuberous sclerosis complex in a newborn receiving everolimus.

Unlabelled: Cardiac rhabdomyoma is the most common primary cardiac tumor, is considered to be a hamartoma of developing cardiac myocytes. Cardiac rhabdomyoma is associated with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) in 50-86% of cases. Mutations in TSC-1/TSC-2 genes result in increased mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway activation responsible for the hamartomatous lesions of tuberous sclerosis complex.