Veronica Lorenz¹, Karlien Carbonez², Geoffroy de Beco¹, Alain Poncelet^1,*

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.17, No.2, pp. 187-192, 2022, DOI:10.32604/chd.2022.018350

Abstract Pulmonary valve implant is frequently necessary in children and adults with congenital heart disease. Infective endocarditis represents a rare but life-threatening complication after transcatheter pulmonary valve implantation. There are various treatments for native or prosthetic valve endocarditis. Surgical intervention, combined with intravenous antibiotic treatment, is of paramount importance, in case of concomitant mediastinal infection, in order to ensure the radical debridement of all infected tissue, avoiding any recurrent endocarditis. In this report, we describe a rare case of mediastinitis, associated with an infected endocarditis, occurring 8 months after Melody (Medtronic^®, Minneapolis, USA) valve implant, successfully treated with the implantation of… More >

Catherine E. Tomasulo^1,*, Lindsay S. Rogers¹, Lauren Andrade^1,2, Michael L. O’Byrne^1,3,4

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.17, No.2, pp. 193-199, 2022, DOI:10.32604/chd.2022.017721

Abstract The majority of patients with congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries, also known as transposition of the great arteries {S,L,L} have ventricular septal defects (VSD), most commonly perimembranous VSD (pmVSD). Transcatheter device closure of pmVSD in these patients has not been widely described. We present a case of device closure of pmVSD in L-TGA with an Amplatzer Duct Occluder II (ADOII) device using a deployment starting in the subpulmonary left ventricle. The case demonstrates some of the technical advantages of the ADOII device for VSD closure, specifically its low profile, symmetric shape, and soft material. These characteristics are advantageous… More >

Barry O’Callaghan¹, Jenny Zablah¹, Joseph Vettukattil², Daniel Levi^3,4, Morris Salem⁴, Allison Cabalka⁵, Jason Anderson⁶, Makram Ebeid⁶, Ryan Alexy⁷, Gareth J. Morgan^1,*

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.17, No.1, pp. 107-116, 2022, DOI:10.32604/CHD.2022.018590

Abstract Objectives: To detail the US multi-institutional experience with the Occlutech^© (Occlutech International AB, Helsingborg, Sweden) atrial flow regulator (AFR) in children and adults with acquired or congenital heart disease. Background: The creation of a long-term atrial communication is desirable in several cardiovascular disease phenotypes, most notably pulmonary arterial hypertension, disorders of increased left ventricular filling and increased cavopulmonary pressures in patients with a Fontan type circulation. Methods: Patients were identified for inclusion from the AFR device manufacturer database. Data was collected using a RedCap database following IRB approval. 8 weeks of follow up data was sought for each patient based… More >

Liping Wang, Mingjie Zhang, Xi Chen, Yachang Pang, Jiaqi Liu, Zhuoming Xu^*

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.17, No.1, pp. 87-97, 2022, DOI:10.32604/CHD.2022.018452

Abstract Background: Reversibility of pulmonary hypertension (PH) is closely related to the treatment options for and prognosis of children with congenital heart disease. Objective: We combined patient-specific clinical features including diagnosis, age and echocardiographic results, and biomarkers of pulmonary vascular dysfunction to explore the noninvasive methods that can be used to accurately evaluate the reversibility of pulmonary hypertension in congenital heart disease (PH-CHD). Methods: Based on the preoperative systolic pulmonary arterial pressure (sPAP), 70 CHD patients were divided into normal, PH-CHD suspected, and confirmed groups. Additionally, biomarkers of circulating endothelial cells (CECs), endothelin-1 (ET-1), and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) were… More >

Taiki Haga^1,*, Tomoyuki Masuyama², Yoshiro Hayashi³, Takahiro Atsumi⁴, Kenzo Ishii⁵, Shinsuke Fujiwara⁶

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.17, No.1, pp. 31-43, 2022, DOI:10.32604/CHD.2022.017407

Abstract Objectives: This study aimed to study the characteristics of in-hospital deterioration in patients with congenital heart disease who required rapid response system activation and identify risk factors associated with 1-month mortality. Methods: We retrospectively analysed data from a Japanese rapid response system registry with 35 participating hospitals. We included consecutive patients with congenital heart disease who required rapid response system activation between January 2014 and March 2018. Logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the associations between 1-month mortality and other patient-specific variables. Results: Among 9,607 patients for whom the rapid response system was activated, only 82 (0.9%) had congenital… More >

Kelly Ferri^1,*, Maite Doñate^2,3, Mireia Parra^2,3, Guillermo R. Oviedo¹, Myriam Guerra-Balic¹, Laia Rojano-Doñate⁴, Nicole Blackburn⁵, Ricard Serra-Grima^2,3

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.16, No.6, pp. 585-595, 2021, DOI:10.32604/CHD.2021.016189

Abstract Background: Aerobic capacity (AC) in adults with congenital heart disease (CHD) is often reduced, mainly due to low confidence levels towards physical activity (PA). The main objective of this study was to estimate the association between PA level and AC (measured as peak of oxygen consumption, VO_2peak) in adults with CHD. Methods: A total of 183 individuals (83 women and 100 men; mean (SD) age 36.9 (11.0) years old) from Vall d’Hebron Hospital, Barcelona-Spain in 2019, participated in this cross-sectional study. The AC was assessed by cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) using a treadmill ramp protocol. Considering values of metabolic equivalent… More >

Lukas Minder¹, Markus Schwerzmann^1,2, Thomas Radtke^1,3, Hugo Saner¹, Prisca Eser¹, Matthias Wilhelm¹, Jean-Paul Schmid^1,4,*

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.16, No.6, pp. 597-608, 2021, DOI:10.32604/CHD.2021.016031

Abstract Objective: To extend our knowledge on tolerance of acute high-altitude exposure and hemodynamic response to exercise in adolescents with congenital heart disease (AscCHD) without meaningful clinical or functional restriction. Methods: A symptom limited cardiopulmonary exercise stress test and a non-invasive cardiac output measurement during steady state exercise were performed at 540 m and at 3454 m a.s.l. Symptoms of acute mountain sickness were noted. Results: We recruited 21 healthy controls and 16 AscCHD (59% male, mean age 14.7 ± 1.1 years). Three subjects (2 controls, 1 AscCHD) presented light symptoms of acute mountain sickness (dizziness and headache). During the symptom… More >

Eva Kapravelou¹, Hugo Issa², Gordon Culham³, Martin Hosking¹, Sanjiv K. Gandhi², Shubhayan Sanatani^1,*

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.16, No.6, pp. 675-680, 2021, DOI:10.32604/CHD.2021.016548

Abstract A 4-month-old previously healthy baby was found to be in congestive heart failure with LV dysfunction and a right aortic arch with severe coarctation, undetectable by blood pressure measurements. A cardiac CT and central blood pressure led to the diagnosis of a unique anatomic variant of aortic coarctation. Once diagnosed the patient underwent surgery with an uncomplicated recovery. More >

Huaying He^1,2, Zhiyong Lin^1,2, Yuelan Weng^1,2, Jianjie Zhou^1,2, Man Ye^1,2, Xiaowei Luo^1,2, Qifeng Zhao^1,2,*

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.16, No.6, pp. 655-673, 2021, DOI:10.32604/CHD.2021.016054

Abstract Background: To achieve successful management of infants with congenital heart disease (CHD) together with pulmonary hypertension (PH), postoperative care, especially feeding care is vital in addition to surgery. Postoperative feeding is comprised of three stages: feeding in the intensive care unit, feeding in the general ward and family feeding, in which the general ward is considered as the “transitional stage”. At present, there is little research on the optimal mode of feeding care for the transitional stage, and there is no universally recognized and accepted protocol. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 114 CHD infants with PH who underwent family-centered (FC) feeding… More >

Yanping Ruan^1,#, Xiangyu Liu^2,#, Haogang Zhu^3,*, Yijie Lu³, Xiaowei Liu¹, Jiancheng Han¹, Lin Sun¹, Ye Zhang¹, Xiaoyan Gu¹, Ying Zhao¹, Lei Li², Suzhen Ran⁴, Jingli Chen⁵, Qiong Yu⁶, Yan Xu⁷, Hongmei Xia⁸, Yihua He^1,*

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.16, No.6, pp. 529-549, 2021, DOI:10.32604/CHD.2021.015862

Abstract Background: Current studies have confirmed that fetal congenital heart diseases (CHDs) are caused by various factors. However, the quantitative risk of CHD is not clear given the combined effects of multiple factors. Objective: This cross-sectional study aimed to detect associated factors of fetal CHD using a Bayesian network in a large sample and quantitatively analyze relative risk ratios (RRs). Methods: Pregnant women who underwent fetal echocardiography (N = 16,086 including 3,312 with CHD fetuses) were analyzed. Twenty-six maternal and fetal factors were obtained. A Bayesian network is constructed based on all variables through structural learning and parameter learning methods to… More >