Atrial Septal Defect Closure: Not Always Straightforward.

A nine-year old boy presented following a chest x-ray for COVID-19 infection that showed cardiomegaly. Transthoracic echocardiogram revealed a large atrial septal defect, dilated right heart, and normal function. Surgical repair was performed eight weeks after his COVID diagnosis.

Regionalization or Access to Care? A Joint Pediatric Heart Care Program That Achieves Both: One Program-Two Sites.

Regionalization of care for children with congenital heart disease has been proposed as a method to improve outcomes. This has raised concerns about limiting access to care. We present the details of a joint pediatric heart care program (JPHCP) which utilized regionalization and actually improved access to care.

Differences in Cost of Care by Palliation Strategy for Infants With Ductal-Dependent Pulmonary Blood Flow.

Background: In infants with ductal-dependent pulmonary blood flow, initial palliation with patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) stent or modified Blalock-Taussig (BT) shunt have comparable mortality but discrepant length of stay, procedural complication rates and reintervention burdens, which may influence cost. The relative economic impact of these palliation strategies is unknown.

Methods And Results: Retrospective study of infants with ductal-dependent pulmonary blood flow palliated with PDA stent (n=104) or BT shunt (n=251) from 2008 to 2015 at 4 centers of the Congenital Catheterization Research Collaborative.

Three-dimensional printing in surgical planning: A case of aortopulmonary window with interrupted aortic arch.

Better anatomical understanding and conceptualization of complex congenital heart defects using three-dimensional (3D) printing may improve surgical planning, especially in rare defects. In this report, we utilized 3D printing to delineate the exact cardiac anatomy of a neonate with an aortopulmonary window associated with interrupted aortic arch to devise a novel approach to the repair.

Comparison Between Patent Ductus Arteriosus Stent and Modified Blalock-Taussig Shunt as Palliation for Infants With Ductal-Dependent Pulmonary Blood Flow: Insights From the Congenital Catheterization Research Collaborative.

Background: Infants with ductal-dependent pulmonary blood flow may undergo palliation with either a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) stent or a modified Blalock-Taussig (BT) shunt. A balanced multicenter comparison of these 2 approaches is lacking.

Methods: Infants with ductal-dependent pulmonary blood flow palliated with either a PDA stent or a BT shunt from January 2008 to November 2015 were reviewed from the 4 member centers of the Congenital Catheterization Research Collaborative.

Effect of hypertension on reproductive organ weights in various strains of rats.

The testes of Wistar Kyoto (WKY) and Spontaneously Hypertensive (SHR) rats have been shown to have differences in regional vascular resistance. In addition, myocardial hypertrophy tends to be more pronounced and occur more frequently in WKY and SHR female rats than in their male counterparts. Therefore, we sought to determine whether hypertension had any effect on reproductive organs and whether this effect was the same among strains.

Preischemic administration of ribose to delay the onset of irreversible ischemic injury and improve function: studies in normal and hypertrophied hearts.

Compared with normal hearts, those with pathology (hypertrophy) are less tolerant of metabolic stresses such as ischemia. Pharmacologic intervention administered prior to such stress could provide significant protection. This study determined, firstly, whether the pentose sugar ribose, previously shown to improve postischemic recovery of energy stores and function, protects against ischemia when administered as a pretreatment.

Body weight and food intake profiles are modulated by sex hormones and tamoxifen in chronically hypertensive rats.

Sex hormones and the selective estrogen receptor modulator tamoxifen affect food consumption and body weight in normotensive rats. This study investigated the effects of hormone manipulation and tamoxifen on weight gain and food intake in the presence of chronic systemic hypertension. Male and female spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) were either neutered or sham operated before puberty, and subgroups of neutered females received either estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) or tamoxifen at the age of 12 wk.

Special Feeding and Care of Senescent Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats.

This study investigated the impact of feeding methods on body weight of senescent female spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) and showed that supplementing powdered feed was useful as they approached heart failure at 22 to 23 months of age. SHRs are genetically predisposed to systemic hypertension and will, with age, progress into complete heart failure resulting in death. Close to the time of heart failure, some rats experienced a loss of appetite and weight loss.