Long-term follow-up after ventricular septal defect repair in children: cardiac autonomic control, cardiac function and exercise capacity.

Objectives: Survival after surgical repair of a ventricular septal defect (VSD) is good, but, as in almost all congenital heart diseases, late complications are frequent in adulthood. The exact mechanisms, timing and who is at risk are not fully understood. Altered cardiac autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity might play a role in these long-term sequelae.

Impedance cardiography in healthy children and children with congenital heart disease: Improving stroke volume assessment.

Introduction: Stroke volume (SV) and cardiac output are important measures in the clinical evaluation of cardiac patients and are also frequently used in research applications. This study was aimed to improve SV scoring derived from spot-electrode based impedance cardiography (ICG) in a pediatric population of healthy volunteers and patients with a corrected congenital heart defect.

Methods: 128 healthy volunteers and 66 patients participated.

Heritability of heart rate recovery and vagal rebound after exercise.

Purpose: The prognostic power of heart rate recovery (HRR) after exercise has been well established but the exact origin of individual differences in HRR remains unclear. This study aims to estimate the heritability of HRR and vagal rebound after maximal exercise in adolescents. Furthermore, the role of voluntary regular exercise behavior (EB) in HRR and vagal rebound is tested.

Postnatal Cardiac Autonomic Nervous Control in Pediatric Congenital Heart Disease.

Congenital heart disease is the most common congenital defect. During childhood, survival is generally good but, in adulthood, late complications are not uncommon. Abnormal autonomic control in children with congenital heart disease may contribute considerably to the pathophysiology of these long term sequelae.

Increasing time trends of thin melanomas in The Netherlands: What are the explanations of recent accelerations?

Background: A disproportional increase in in situ or thin melanomas may point at underlying causes such as increased melanoma awareness, as well as 'overdiagnosis' of melanoma in diagnostically equivocal small lesions.

Objectives: The purposes of this study were to estimate trends in melanoma incidence by sex, Breslow thickness (thin melanomas subdivided into four subgroups: <0.25 mm, 0.