Developing standard reference data for Thai children from a six-minute walk test.

Background: The six-minute walk test (6MWT) is a useful test for pre-and post-treatment comparisons, measuring functional status and predicting morbidity and mortality. The test is not widely used with children because the exact reference data in healthy children are often not known and the test requires concentration and co-operation from the participants, which is harder to manage in children. Data for children have been studied in many countries, but data for Thai children is limited.

Positive serology for dengue viral infection in pediatric patients with Kawasaki disease in southern Thailand.

Background: The etiologic agent of Kawasaki disease (KD) is unknown, but may be dengue infection because of reported cases of concomitant KD and dengue.

Methods And Results: Prospective study was conducted to ascertain the relationship of positive serology for dengue infection in pediatric patients presenting with KD. A total of 65 cases were diagnosed with KD during the period of 4 years and of the 48 who had a complete dengue serologic study, 9 had a positive dengue titer.

Epidemiologic study of Kawasaki disease and cases resistant to IVIG therapy in Thailand.

The incidence of Kawasaki disease (KD) in Thailand has never been studied before. We reviewed the data from the National Registry of Thai Children who had KD between 1998-2002 to evaluate the incidence of KD and cases resistant to treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG). Resistance to IVIG was defined as remaining febrile at least 48 hours after initial IVIG therapy.

Predicted outcome after repair of tetralogy of Fallot by postoperative pressure ratio between right and left ventricle.

Background: The surgical management of tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) has continued to evolve and there are now generally excellent early and long-term results following complete repair.

Objective: To investigate the early results of the authors' current surgical management of TOF by assessing the perioperative and early to intermediate follow-up period. The authors paid particular attention to the post-operative ratio of right ventricular to left ventricular systolic pressure (RVSP/LVSP), focusing on the presence of low cardiac output, intensive care unit (ICU) stay, prolonged of inotropic support and ventilation support time.

Mitogen-activated protein kinases (p38 and c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase) are differentially regulated during cardiac volume and pressure overload hypertrophy.

Chronic pressure overload (PO) and volume overload (VO) result in morphologically and functionally distinct forms of myocardial hypertrophy. However, the molecular mechanism initiating these two types of hypertrophy is not yet understood. Data obtained from different cell types have indicated that the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) comprising c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK), extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), and p38 play an important role in transmitting signals of stress stimuli to elicit the cellular response.

Early experience with pediatric cardiac intervention in Songklanagarind Hospital.

Background: Nowadays, pediatric cardiac intervention is an effective optional treatment for congenital heart disease (CHD). Several cardiac centers have been established in different regions of Thailand and Songklanagarind Hospital is the newest of these university cardiac centers.

Objective: To report results and complications of transcatheter treatment for congenital cardiac defects in Songklanagarind Hospital.

A case report of infant with left ventricular noncompaction.

Left ventricular noncompaction (LVNC) is a rare cardiomyopathy resulting from abnormal arrest during endomyocardial embryogenesis. The authors present a 6-month-old infant with intractable cardiogenic shock and echocardiographic features of LVNC, characterized by excessively prominent ventricular trabeculation and deep intertrabecular recesses as the first case report in Thailand.

Dengue myocarditis.

We report a 13-year-old boy who developed bradycardia and hypotension a day after recovery from dengue hemorrhagic fever. His electrocardiogram, during the bradycardia, showed a junctional rhythm with a rate of 50 beats/minute. This is the first reported case of sinus node dysfunction following dengue infection.

Prevalence of idiopathic long QT syndrome in congenital sensori-neural hearing loss students of Songkhla School for the Deaf.

Objectives: To survey the prevalence of the long QT syndrome (LQTS), especially Jervell-Lange-Nielsen syndrome (JLNS), in Thai children (The first such study).

Background: LQTS is a rare inherited disease with a prevalence of 0.21 per cent in children with congenital deafness from other reports.

Myocardial diseases in Thai children.

Unlabelled: Myocardial diseases are among the important causes of mortality and morbidity in children. This drew the authors attention to the study of myocardial diseases in children to find out the outcome, factors affecting the outcome, and management strategies. The authors retrospectively studied children who had been diagnosed with primary myocardial diseases at six university hospitals in Thailand from January 1996 to December 2000.