BACKGROUND Congenital heart defects may be environmentally related, but the association with elevated ambient temperature has received little attention. OBJECTIVES We studied the relationship between outdoor heat during the first trimester of pregnancy and risk of congenital heart defects. METHODS We carried out a retrospective cohort study of 704,209 fetuses between 2 and 8 weeks postconce...

Atrial septal defect (ASD) is the most common type of common congenital heart disease (CHD) in adults. During the last decade, there has been a remarkable change in the treatment strategy of ASD, shifting the therapeutic gold standard from surgery to transcatheter closure, along with refinements and the evolution of device technology. Reports on the outcome of transcatheter ASD closure have sho...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine associations between prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) and congenital heart defects (CHDs). STUDY DESIGN These analyses included case infants with CHDs (n = 6440) and liveborn control infants without birth defects (n = 5673) enrolled in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (1997-2004). RESULTS Adjusted odds ratios for all CHDs combi...

This review article will guide the reader through the basics of echocardiographic assessment of congenital left to right shunts in both paediatric and adult age groups. After reading this article, the reader will understand the pathology and clinical presentation of atrial septal defects (ASDs), ventricular septal defects (VSDs), atrioventricular septal defects (AVSDs) and patent arterial duct....

Embolization of the Amplatzer Septal Occluder (ASO) device (St. Jude Medical, Minnesota) after percutaneous closure of atrial septal defect (ASD) is a rare and potentially catastrophic complication. Percutaneous retrieval of the embolized device is gaining ground as an acceptable method, although these patients are usually subsequently referred for open surgical closure of the ASD. We present a...

The presence oflow frequency diastolic murmurs, presumably due to increased flow through the respective atrio-ventricular valves, has been recognized in patients with atrial and ventricular septal defects for many years. The murmur in ventricular septal defect was reported by Laubry and Pezzi in 1921 and emphasized by Wood (1950). A publication from this institute drew attention to this phenome...

BACKGROUND Loss-of-function mutations in CHD7 cause Coloboma, Heart Disease, Atresia of Choanae, Retardation of Growth and/or Development, Genital Hypoplasia, and Ear Abnormalities With or Without Deafness (CHARGE) syndrome, a variable combination of multiple congenital malformations including heart defects. Heart defects are reported in 70% to 92% of patients with a CHD7 mutation, but most stu...

BACKGROUND Transcatheter closure of secundum type atrial septal defect (ASD) has become a standard procedure in most medical centers. Although the procedure is invasive and has a shorter recovery duration and a lower complication rate compared with surgery, it is not risk-free. In this retrospective chart review case series, we report our experience of management of complications after placemen...

Atrial septal defect closure is now routinely performed using a percutaneous approach under echocardiographic guidance. Centrally located, secundum defects are ideal for device closure but there is considerable morphological variation in size and location of the defects. A small proportion of atrial septal defects may have multiple fenestrations and these are often considered unsuitable for dev...

The percutaneous transcatheter closure of secundum atrial septal defect has recently become an increasingly widespread alternative to surgical closure in many centers. Although immediate, short, and intermediate term results of percutaneous transcatheter septal closure are promising, the procedure is not free from inherent complications that could be lethal. We report a case of device embolizat...