Jiaxiong Wu^1,2,3,#, Runzhang Liang^1,#, Naijimuding ABUDUREXITI^4,#, Jing Ling², Zirui Peng², Jinxin Li¹, Canxin Wang¹, Yong Zhang¹, Haiyun Yuan^1,2,3,*, Shusheng Wen^1,2,3,*

Structural and Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.21, No.2, 2026, DOI:10.32604/schd.2026.077455 - 11 June 2026

Abstract Objective: Cone reconstruction (CR) is the preferred surgical treatment for Ebstein’s anomaly (EA). However, the molecular mechanisms underlying postoperative cardiac repair remain unclear. This study investigated the dynamic changes of plasma exosomal microRNAs (miRNAs) in EA patients before and after CR, exploring their association with postoperative cardiac function recovery and potential molecular mechanisms. Methods: Plasma samples were collected from 10 EA patients undergoing CR preoperatively, 1 day postoperatively, and 7 days postoperatively, along with samples from 10 healthy controls. Plasma exosomes were isolated using size-exclusion chromatography. Exosomal miRNAs were extracted and sequenced, followed by differential expression,… More >

Jie Wu^1,#, Guiwen Liang^1,#, Ya Pan^1,#, Talaibaike Maimaijuma^2,3, Xianggui Xu^2,3, Juying Lu¹, Zhongwei Huang^1,*, Lei Qi^1,*, Haiyan Jiang^1,*

Structural and Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.21, No.2, 2026, DOI:10.32604/schd.2026.077080 - 11 June 2026

Abstract Background: Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) complicated by severe infection often present with immature immune function and poor prognosis. Evidence supporting the use of glucocorticoids in this population, particularly with dynamic immune monitoring, remains limited. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 183 CHD children with severe infections admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) from 2019 to 2023. Patients were divided into two groups: the glucocorticoid intervention group (n = 92, methylprednisolone + standard treatment) and the control group (n = 91, standard treatment). Immune indicators (Interleukins-6 (IL-6), C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT), CD4⁺/CD8⁺ ratio… More >

Aygül Kaya Akıllı¹, Osman Akdeniz², Celal Özcan^3,*

Structural and Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.21, No.2, 2026, DOI:10.32604/schd.2026.076628 - 11 June 2026

Abstract Background: Congenital heart disease (CHD) refers to malformations of the heart or great vessels that occur during the intrauterine period. Critical CHD refers to heart conditions that require medical intervention or surgical procedures in the early stages of life. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, newborns aged 0 to 28 days who were admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and the Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery Clinic of our hospital with a diagnosis of critical CHD between January 2019 and September 2024 were evaluated. Results: Among 160 patients, 52 (32.5%) had a prenatal diagnosis. Overall mortality was significantly… More >

Kadriye Simsek Alan^*, Busra Senel Kahyaoglu

Journal on Artificial Intelligence, Vol.8, pp. 203-230, 2026, DOI:10.32604/jai.2026.078359 - 15 April 2026

Abstract Cardiovascular diseases remain one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide, making early and reliable diagnosis a critical challenge for modern healthcare systems. In this study, a systematic comparative performance analysis of widely used machine learning algorithms is conducted for the early detection of heart disease using tabular clinical data. Rather than proposing a novel model architecture, the primary objective is to provide a fair, reproducible, and clinically meaningful evaluation of commonly adopted classifiers under consistent experimental conditions. The Kaggle Heart Failure dataset is employed, and multiple machine learning models—including tuned Random Forest, tuned XGBoost,… More >

Xuming Mo^1,*, Taibing Fan^2,*, Zhongdong Hua^3,*, Christoph Haller⁴, Shinichiro Oda⁵, Shuhua Luo⁶, Weijie Liang², Yuzhong Yang¹, Huaipu Liu³, Nianguo Dong⁷, Shoujun Li⁸, Xinxin Chen⁹, Jimei Chen¹⁰, Hao Zhang¹¹, Qiang Shu¹², Haibo Zhang¹¹, Quansheng Xing¹³, Jinghao Zheng¹¹, Xiaofeng Li¹⁴, Teng Ming¹⁵, Qi An¹⁶, Ping Wen¹⁷, Qiang Wang¹⁸, Jirong Qi¹, Huiwen Chen¹¹, Shusheng Wen¹⁹, Rui Chen²⁰, Ming Ye²¹, Keming Yang⁸, Minhua Fang²², Caixia Liu²³, Ke Lin¹⁶, Zhongshi Wu²⁴, Xiangming Fan¹², Zhengxia Pan²⁵, Yiqun Ding²⁶, Ming’an Pi²⁷, Xin Li²⁸, Yong Zou²⁹, Shuguang Tao³⁰, Renwei Chen³¹, Li Ma⁹, Libing Zhang³², Tao You³³, Dongshan Liao³⁴, Cheng Zhou³⁵, Hongxin Li³⁶, Gengxu Zhou³⁷, Chunhu Gu³⁸, Zhiqiang Li³⁹, Yonggang Li²⁵, Hui Zhang⁴⁰, Xiaomin He¹¹, Yanan Lu¹¹, Haifa Hong⁴¹, Benqing Zhang⁸, Li Gong²⁷, Jiafeng Qi⁴², Song Bai³⁹, Yuhang Liu⁴³, Tianli Zhao²⁴, Cardiothoracic Surgery Group, Pediatric Surgery Branch of Chinese Medical Doctor Association, Cardiac Surgery Group, Pediatric Surgery Branch of Chinese Medical Association, the Asian Association for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery

Structural and Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.21, No.1, 2026, DOI:10.32604/schd.2026.077974 - 31 March 2026

Abstract Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a common birth defect in children, and surgical intervention is the primary treatment. The traditional standard median sternotomy (MS) has drawbacks such as significant trauma and obvious scarring. The right axillary incision (RAI) has gradually become a conventional approach due to its advantages of preserving thoracic cage integrity, small incision size, rapid recovery, and hidden scarring. However, there is currently a lack of relevant guidelines and consensus for its application. This consensus adopts the international Delphi process, systematically searching domestic and foreign literature on CHD from 1982 to 2024. It… More >

Jiafei He^1,2, Ailixiati Alifu², Haifan Wang², Renwei Chen^1,2,*

Structural and Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.21, No.1, 2026, DOI:10.32604/schd.2026.075858 - 31 March 2026

Abstract Hyperglycemia in pregnancy (HIP) is an important independent risk factor for congenital heart disease (CHD) in offspring. With an increasing number of women of childbearing age experiencing gestational hyperglycemia, the impact of an intrauterine hyperglycemic environment on fetal development has drawn significant attention. However, the teratogenic mechanisms underlying its effects on cardiac development remain incompletely understood. This review systematically analyzes relevant literature to summarize its underlying mechanisms and key findings: A hyperglycemic environment disrupts cardiac neural crest cell migration, differentiation, and the proliferation/apoptosis balance of cardiomyocytes by inducing oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum stress, and inflammatory… More >

Muhammad Adil¹, Nadeem Javaid^1,*, Imran Ahmed², Abrar Ahmed³, Nabil Alrajeh^4,*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.86, No.1, pp. 1-20, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.071215 - 10 November 2025

Abstract Heart disease remains a leading cause of mortality worldwide, emphasizing the urgent need for reliable and interpretable predictive models to support early diagnosis and timely intervention. However, existing Deep Learning (DL) approaches often face several limitations, including inefficient feature extraction, class imbalance, suboptimal classification performance, and limited interpretability, which collectively hinder their deployment in clinical settings. To address these challenges, we propose a novel DL framework for heart disease prediction that integrates a comprehensive preprocessing pipeline with an advanced classification architecture. The preprocessing stage involves label encoding and feature scaling. To address the issue of… More >

Kuo Li^1,2, Yue Tang^1,2, Yonggang Li^1,2,*, Yuhao Wu^1,2,*

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.20, No.6, pp. 693-702, 2025, DOI:10.32604/chd.2026.076517 - 10 February 2026

Abstract Background: There has been an increasing number of studies documenting the application of the right axillary thoracotomy (RAT) approach for the repair of congenital heart diseases. However, no research has reported the RAT approach in repairing the anomalous aortic origin of a coronary artery (AAOCA). This study aims to investigate the feasibility and safety of the RAT approach for repairing AAOCA in children. Methods: We performed a retrospective study at the Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University between January 2024 and October 2025 to investigate the clinical outcomes of the RAT approach for repairing AAOCA in… More >

Yuanyuan Li¹, Xingyue Wang¹, Yucan Deng¹, Runfang Tian¹, Jinfeng Zhao¹, Li Liu^2,*, Panpan Sun^3,*, Zhiguang Ping^1,3,*

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.20, No.6, pp. 717-727, 2025, DOI:10.32604/chd.2026.075611 - 10 February 2026

Abstract Background: Four-dimensional (4D) ultrasound is increasingly being used for prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart disease (CHD). We aimed to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate its diagnostic accuracy for fetal CHD. Methods: This systematic review was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA-DTA guidelines. We systematically searched eight databases for studies published up to July 22, 2025. Data were extracted to calculate diagnostic accuracy metrics, study quality was assessed using QUADAS-2, and a bivariate random-effects model was used for the meta-analysis. Results: A total of 49 studies were included, comprising 45 retrospective and 4 prospective studies,… More >

Bryanna N. Schwartz^*, Victoria L. Pemberton, D’Andrea Freemon, Kristin M. Burns, Gail D. Pearson

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.20, No.6, pp. 637-646, 2025, DOI:10.32604/chd.2025.073995 - 10 February 2026

Abstract Background: In the 1990s, there were few multicenter research collaborations and pediatric cardiovascular clinical trials. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health established the Pediatric Heart Network (PHN) in 2001 to stimulate multi-center collaboration and clinical studies in children and adults with congenital heart disease (CHD) and pediatric acquired heart disease. Methods: The PHN developed a flexible infrastructure for multi-center collaborative clinical research in children and adults with CHD and pediatric acquired heart disease. The objectives of the PHN are to improve health outcomes in individuals of all ages with… More >