Quantification of left-to-right shunt through patent ductus arteriosus by colour Doppler in children admitted for a device closure.

Purpose: Our animal model suggests that quantification of ductal flow from colour Doppler pixels is possible. We aimed to clarify whether this method can be used to determine a clinically significant ductal shunt in children.

Methods: We retrospectively quantified ductal flow from saved images from 20 children who had been admitted for device occlusion of patent ductus arteriosus.

Quantification of left to right shunt in patent ductus arteriosus by color Doppler.

Ultrasound is a reliable tool to diagnose patent ductus arteriosus in premature infants but no reliable noninvasive method exists to quantify ductal flow. The aim of this study was to quantify the size of the shunt via persistent ductus arteriosus from pixel counts in color Doppler flow images. A cotton band was placed around the ductus arteriosus of newborn lambs to adjust the magnitude of flow.

Acute decrease of coronary flow after indomethacin delivery in newborn lambs.

Aim: To document the effects of indomethacin (IND) on coronary flow.

Methods: We studied nine premature lambs during the first day of life. The gestational age varied between 132 and 134 days (term 145 days) and weight 3.

Heart transplantation across the antibodies against HLA and ABO.

We have intentionally performed heart transplantation in a 5-year-old child, despite the most unfavourable risk factors for patient survival; the presence of high level of antibodies against donor's human leucocyte antigen (HLA) class I/II and blood group antigens. Pretransplant treatment by mycophenolate mofetil, prednisolone, tacrolimus, intravenous immunoglobulin, rituximab, protein-A immunoadsorption (IA) and plasma exchange reduced antibody titres against the donor's lymphocytes from 128 to 16 and against the donor's blood group antigen from 256 to 0. The patient was urgently transplanted with a heart from an ABO incompatible donor (A(1) to O).