Echocardiographic score to predict neonatal surgery for aortic coarctation in newborns with prenatal suspicion and patent ductus arteriosus.

Introduction: The evaluation of upcoming Aortic Coarctation (CoA) in new-borns with prenatal suspicion entails a close echocardiographic monitor until Arterial Duct (AD) closure, in a department with pediatric cardiological and surgical expertise. The significant number of false-positive prenatal diagnoses causes parental stress and healthcare costs.

Aim: The aim of this study was to elaborate an echocardiographic prediction model to be employed at birth when PDA is still present, in patients suspected of CoA during fetal life in order to foretell CoA requiring neonatal surgical intervention.

Moderate and Severe Congenital Heart Diseases Adversely Affect the Growth of Children in Italy: A Retrospective Monocentric Study.

Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) are at increased risk for undernutrition. The aim of our study was to describe the growth parameters of Italian children with CHD compared to healthy children. We performed a cross-sectional study collecting the anthropometric data of pediatric patients with CHD and healthy controls.

Pediatric Restrictive Cardiomyopathies.

Restrictive cardiomyopathy (RCM) is the least frequent phenotype among pediatric heart muscle diseases, representing only 2.5-3% of all cardiomyopathies diagnosed during childhood. Pediatric RCM has a poor prognosis, high incidence of pulmonary hypertension (PH), thromboembolic events, and sudden death, is less amenable to medical or surgical treatment with high mortality rates.

Prenatal sonography of the foramen ovale predicts urgent balloon atrial septostomy in neonates with complete transposition of the great arteries.

Background: Hypoxia caused by inadequate intracardiac mixing owing to a restrictive foramen ovale is a potentially life-threatening complication in neonates with dextro-transposition of the great arteries. An urgent balloon atrial septostomy is a procedure of choice in such cases, but dependent on the availability of a 24-hour interventional cardiology facility. The prenatal identification of predictors for an urgent balloon atrial septostomy at birth would help in optimizing the management of these neonates, minimizing the risk of hypoxic damage.

Lung ultrasound compared with bedside chest radiography in a paediatric cardiac intensive care unit.

Aim: Postoperative recovery of children with heart disease is encumbered by pulmonary complications like pneumothorax (PNX), pleural effusion (PLE), interstitial oedema and pulmonary consolidation (PC). Recently, lung ultrasound (LUS) has become an important diagnostic tool for evaluation of pulmonary diseases in the paediatric context. LUS is accurate in diagnosing pleural and parenchymal diseases.

Aortopulmonary Collateral Artery from the Proximal Ascending Aorta: A Rare Anatomical Finding.

Tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia and major aortopulmonary collateral arteries is a rare congenital heart lesion in which pulmonary blood supply may arise from different segments of the aorta. We report an unusual case of a newborn with a major collateral artery originating from the proximal ascending aorta. Successful reparative surgery was undertaken.

Dilated cardiomyopathy in a pediatric population: etiology and outcome predictors - a single-center experience.

Aim: The aim of the study was to assess predictors of outcome in patients hospitalized for dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and severe left ventricular dysfunction. Patients & methods: 83 pediatric patients hospitalized for heart failure due to DCM with coexistent left ventricular dysfunction were enrolled.

Results: Overall, 5-year survival free from heart transplantation was 69.

Multimodality imaging, single center, cross-sectional study in adolescents or young adults with repaired tetralogy of Fallout.

Background: Proper integration of multiple imaging modalities in the routine follow-up of patients with repaired tetralogy of Fallout (TOF) is poorly supported by data. We report our single center comparative study between cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and echocardiography to assess equipoise in the clinical utility of these two imaging methods in an unselected consecutive cohort of TOF patients referred to our outpatient clinic.

Material And Methods: In this cross-sectional study, repaired TOF patients who underwent CMR and echocardiography within a 4-week period between 2010 and 2011 at our Center were included.

Quadricuspid aortic valve and anomalous origin of the left circumflex coronary artery in a young man with Down syndrome.

The Authors present the case of an asymptomatic 36-year-old man, affected by Down syndrome, with an unexpected quadricuspid aortic valve coupled with the anomalous origin of the left circumflex coronary artery from the proximal right coronary artery. This is the first report of the concomitant presence of these three conditions.

[Pathophysiology and differential diagnosis of dyspnea].

Dyspnea is the sensation of breathlessness, which is one of a few symptoms described as frightening and alarming. There are different hypotheses of pathophysiological mechanisms explaining a multitude of symptoms described by patients. Objective criteria for this commonly reported symptom do not exist.