Efficacy of Nitric Oxide Administration in Attenuating Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury During Neonatal Cardiopulmonary Bypass.

Objective: Nitric oxide (NO) plays several protective roles in ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Neonates undergoing the Norwood procedure are subject to develop I/R injury due to the immaturity of their organs and the potential need to interrupt or decrease systemic flow during surgery. We hypothesized that NO administration during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) ameliorates the I/R and could help the postoperative recovery after the Norwood procedure.

Three-Dimensional Echocardiographic En Face Views of Ventricular Septal Defects: Feasibility, Accuracy, Imaging Protocols and Reference Image Collection.

Background: Ventricular septal defect (VSD) is the most common congenital cardiac anomaly. Accurate assessment is critical for planning treatment. Recent advances in three-dimensional (3D) echocardiography have improved image quality and ease of use.

Transesophageal echocardiography of intracardiac thrombus in congenital heart disease and atrial flutter: the importance of thorough examination of the Fontan.

Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is used in atrial flutter or fibrillation (AFF) before electric cardioversion to detect intracardiac thrombi. Previous studies have described the use of TEE to diagnose intracardiac thrombi in the left atrium and left atrial appendage, which has an incidence of 8 % among patients without congenital heart disease (CHD). In their practice the authors have noted a significant incidence of intracardiac thrombi in other structures of patients with CHD and AFF.

Three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography of atrial septal defect device closure.

Most secundum atrial septal defects (ASD) are amenable to device closure. Three- dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (3DTEE) can be used to obtain an en face view of the ASD and important surrounding structures which provides for analysis of the type, size, shape, orientation, number and position of orifices, ASD rims and important surrounding structures in a single live 3D echo view. Also, 3DTEE is ideal for monitoring the position and configuration of devices and delivery hardware using live real -time imaging techniques.