Valvular Regurgitation Using Portable Echocardiography in a Healthy Student Population: Implications for Rheumatic Heart Disease Screening.

Background: There is increasing use of portable echocardiography as a screening test for rheumatic heart disease (RHD). The prevalence of valvular regurgitation in healthy populations as determined using portable echocardiography has not been well defined. Minimal echocardiographic criteria for RHD have recently been clarified, but the overlap of normal and abnormal valvular regurgitation warrants further study.

Congenital mitral valve lesions : Correlation between morphology and imaging.

Congenital malformations of the mitral valve are often complex and affect multiple segments of the valve apparatus. They may occur in isolation or in association with other congenital heart defects. The majority of mitral valve malformations are not simply classified, and descriptive terms with historical significance (parachute, mitral, or arcade) often lack the specificity that cardiac surgeons demand as part of preoperative echocardiographic morphological assessment.

Optimising echocardiographic screening for rheumatic heart disease in New Zealand: not all valve disease is rheumatic.

Aims: Echocardiography detects a greater prevalence of rheumatic heart disease than heart auscultation. Echocardiographic screening for rheumatic heart disease combined with secondary prophylaxis may potentially prevent severe rheumatic heart disease in high-risk populations. We aimed to determine the prevalence of rheumatic heart disease in children from an urban New Zealand population at high risk for acute rheumatic fever.

Transcatheter closure of secundum atrial septal defects with the Amplatzer septal occluder in adults and children-follow-up closure rates, degree of mitral regurgitation and evolution of arrhythmias.

Aim: To report the results of transcatheter atrial septal defect (ASD) closure with the Amplatzer septal occluder (ASO) from the single centre providing interventions for congenital heart disease in New Zealand.

Methods: A single centre retrospective review of all patients 1997-2004 inclusive, undergoing planned transcatheter ASD closure was undertaken. Implantation success, complications and latest patient follow-up are described.

The influence of measured versus assumed uptake of oxygen in assessing pulmonary vascular resistance in patients with a bidirectional Glenn anastomosis.

Aims: To determine the accuracy of data relating to pulmonary vascular resistance data in patients with a bidirectional Glenn anastomosis as calculated using predicted versus measured uptake of oxygen.

Methods: We studied retrospectively the data from 33 patients with a bidirectional Glenn anastomosis who underwent cardiac catheterisation prior to surgery to complete the Fontan circulation. Their weight ranged from 5.