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Pediatric Cardiology Featured Science

Long-Term Survival of Patients With Coarctation Repaired During Infancy (from the Pediatric Cardiac Care Consortium).
Oster ME, McCracken C, Kiener A, Aylward B, Cory M, Hunting J, Kochilas LK.
Am J Cardiol. 2019 Jun 6. pii: S0002-9149(19)30626-5. doi: 10.1016/j.amjcard.2019.05.047. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 31272703
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Take Home Points by Dr. Inga Voges (Kiel, Germany):

• The long-term survival in patients with aortic coarctation who underwent surgery before the age of 12 months is excellent.
• Weight <2.5 kg at the time of CoA repair, presence of a genetic syndrome and surgery before 1990 seems to be associated with increased late mortality.

Cardiomegaly on chest radiographs as a predictor of heart disease in the pediatric population.
Dasgupta S, Kelleman M, Slesnick T, Oster ME.
Am J Emerg Med. 2019 Jun 25. pii: S0735-6757(19)30426-7. doi: 10.1016/j.ajem.2019.06.045. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 31272753
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Take Home Points by Dr. Jared Hershenson (Greater Washington DC):

• Cardiomegaly on chest x-ray (CXR) has a relatively poor positive predictive value (PPV) for subsequent diagnosis of true heart disease.
• The addition of an EKG and BNP > 100 pg/ml improves the PPV, especially in patients < 1 year of age but does not negate the need for a subsequent echocardiogram.

Congenital and Pediatric Cardiac EP Featured Science

Different characteristics of postoperative atrial tachyarrhythmias between congenital and non-congenital heart disease.
Kondo M, Fukuda K, Wakayama Y, Nakano M, Hasebe Y, Satake H, Segawa M, Hirano M, Shimokawa H.
J Interv Card Electrophysiol. 2019 Jun 13. doi: 10.1007/s10840-019-00575-2. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 31197584

Take Home Points by Dr. Philip Chang (Gainesville, FL):

• Atrial tachyarrhythmias in ACHD vs. non-ACHD differ with regards to arrhythmia mechanism and substrate.
• Atrial tachyarrhythmias develop at earlier age and following longer duration after cardiac surgery in ACHD patients.

ACHD Featured Science (sponsored by ISACHD)

Mechanism and Risk Factors for Death in Adults With Tetralogy of Fallot.
Egbe AC, Kothapalli S, Borlaug BA, Ammash NM, Najam M, Bajwa N, Tarek K, Matthew J, Connolly HM.
Am J Cardiol. 2019 Jun 7. pii: S0002-9149(19)30627-7. doi: 10.1016/j.amjcard.2019.05.048. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 31272701
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Take Home Points by Dr. Timothy Roberts (Melbourne, Australia):

• Annual event rate of death or cardiac transplant was 0.9 % in a Mayo Clinic cohort of 465 TOF patients.
• Six independent risk factors associated with death/transplant were age > 42 years, atrial fibrillation, ³ moderate QRS fragmentation, LVEF < 50 %, RVEDP > 16 mmHg, and LVEDP > 16 mmHg.
• Nearly two-fold increased risk of death or transplant per unit increase in number of risk factors.

Non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants in adults with a Fontan circulation: are they safe?
Yang H, Veldtman GR, Bouma BJ, Budts W, Niwa K, Meijboom F, Scognamiglio G, Egbe AC, Schwerzmann M, Broberg C, Morissens M, Buber J, Tsai S, Polyzois I, Post MC, Greutmann M, Van Dijk A, Mulder BJ, Aboulhosn J.
Open Heart. 2019 Jun 3;6(1):e000985. doi: 10.1136/openhrt-2018-000985. eCollection 2019.
PMID: 31245011 Free PMC Article
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Take Home Points by Dr. Blanche Cupido (Cape Town, South Africa):

• The 2014 PACES/HRS gave NOACS a class III recommendation for use in Fontan patients with atrial arrhythmias – this was based on a lack of data rather than reported adverse events.
• This is the first study providing prospective safety data for the use of NOACS in Fontan patients.
• They showed comparable safety and efficacy to VKA’s with an annual rate of 2.9% respectively for thromboembolism and major bleeding.
• Since the mean follow-up in this study was only 1.4 years, longer follow-up data is needed.

Interventional Cardiology Featured Science

A Low Residual Pressure Gradient Yields Excellent Long-Term Outcome After Percutaneous Pulmonary Valve Implantation.
Georgiev S, Ewert P, Tanase D, Hess J, Hager A, Cleuziou J, Meierhofer C, Eicken A.
JACC Cardiovasc Interv. 2019 Jun 10. pii: S1936-8798(19)30846-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jcin.2019.03.037. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 31202951
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Take Home Points by Dr. Wendy Whiteside (Ann Arbor MI):

• Transcatheter pulmonary valve implantation has excellent long-term outcomes with surgery-free survival 92% at 5 years and 83% at 10 years.
• Significant risk factor for death and valve failure include an RV-PA gradient >15 mmHg. All efforts to adequate prepare the RVOT and minimize residual gradient leads to significant improvement in survival free of repeat interventions.

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Adult Congenital Heart Association Association for European Paediatric and Congenital Cardiology
Asia Pacific Society for ACHD
Asia Pacific Pediatric Cardiac Society
British Congenital Cardiac AssociationCanadian Adult Congenital Heart Network
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
Children’s National Medical Center
Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia Society
Congenital Cardiology Today
Congenital Heart Surgeons Society
International Society for Adult Congenital Heart Disease
Iranian Society of Pediatric Cardiology
Japanese Society for ACHD
Johns Hopkins All Children’s Heart Institute
Pediatric and Congenital Electrophysiology Society
Pediatric Cardiac Society of India
Paediatric Cardiac Society of South Africa
Pan Arab Congenital Heart Disease Association
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The Royal Brompton Hospital
Turkish Association of Pediatric Cardiology and Pediatric Cardiac Surgery
World Congress of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery