OBJECTIVE Comprehensive data are currently unavailable on the prevalence of cardiac abnormalities in children after the newborn/infant period. The present report describes the prevalence of echocardiographically detected cardiac disease in a cohort of randomly selected healthy junior high school children. METHODS The cohort for this report consists of 357 children (mean age: 13 years) randoml...

A 71-year-old male patient underwent orthotopic heart transplantation in 1995. Due to left heart catheterization 15 years later, biopsy from the left ventricular apex was performed for rejection screening. Two days later, echocardiography revealed severe mitral valve regurgitation requiring mitral valve replacement. This is a very rare case showing that left heart biopsy may lead to severe hemo...

Background. Patients with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) with symptoms refractory to drugs (j3-blockers or verapamil) are candidates for cardiac surgery (left ventricular septal myectomy or mitral valve replacement). The present study examines prospectively the ability of dual-chamber (DDD) pacing to improve symptoms and relieve left ventricular outflow obstruction in such patien...

conclusions surgical repair of the congenital mv disease yields acceptable early and intermediate-term satisfactory valve function and good survival at intermediate-term follow-up. strong predictors for poor surgical outcome and death were age smaller than 1 year, weight smaller or equal than 6 kg, and associated cardiac anomalies such as pulmonary stenosis. objectives the aim of this study was...

Criteria for selection of patients with aortic valve disease for cardiac catheterization are described, based on a study of 81 cases. Children with aortic stenosis warrant catheterization at the time when the clinical diagnosis is made, but in adults this examination may be deferred until symptoms appear or left ventricular hypertrophy is recognized. In patients with pure aortic insufficiency c...

Ventricular arrhythmias are rare in childhood but may be associated with syncope and sudden death. This report describes 8 children with ventricular arrhythmias, 6 of whom suffered syncopal episodes. Ventricular tachycardia was documented in 5. One boy died suddenly. Complete cardiac investigation was carried out with exercise testing, Holter monitoring, echocardiography, cardiac catheterizatio...

background: echocardiography is the most common test used for the evaluation of aortic regurgitation (ar). however, the role of echocardiography as an available and inexpensive method in the quantification of ar by the left ventricle to right ventricle stroke volume ratio (lv/rv sv ratio) has not been completely investigated. methods: between june 2005 and december 2007, 132 consecutive patient...

Anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery (ALCAPA) is a rare congenital cardiac malformation. We report three cases of ALCAPA who survived to adulthood. The first case was a 51-year-old woman who complained of typical chest pain that was diagnosed with ALCAPA using cardiac catheterization and coronary computed tomographic angiography (CTA). The second case was a 30-...