Gabriella Agnoletti

..Patients with relatively simple or complex congenital heart diseases need to be followed in specialized units, like those existing in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain...

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..This study was undertaken to determine outcomes and best strategies for treatment of occluded pulmonary arteries in patients with congenital heart disease...

..This method offers new perspectives for the investigation of BMCs coronary infusion and engraftment in heart diseases...

..Finally, the procedure does not carry a higher risk for those children below the age of 1 year...

..Background: Interventional paediatric catheterisation is still burdened by a substantial risk. Risk factors, however, have rarely been investigated...

..The benign association of this unusual variant of the scimitar syndrome and persistence of the hepatic venous plexus needs to be recognised in order to avoid extensive investigations and surgery involving the inferior caval vein...

..Interventional cardiac catheterisation play a major role in the management of this population. The results of 3 years of activity in a new centre treating GUCH patients are illustrated...

..To study the effects of closure of interatrial communications associated with a right to left shunt in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) who had a biventricular repair...

..The objective of this study was to review our institutional experience concerning neonatal aortic commissurotomy and to identify predictors of outcome...

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..Due to the limited possibility of over-dilation, the use of this stent has to be limited to the stenosis of peripheral pulmonary branches or to lesions that can be surgically treated during further surgical procedures...

..A larger use of premounted stents, when possible, is recommended...

..To assess the early results of conversion from atriopulmonary to total cavopulmonary connection in patients with failing Fontan operation...

..We evaluated the long-term results of perforation of the pulmonary valve in patients with pulmonary atresia with an intact ventricular septum (PA-IVS)...

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..We report our experience of off-pump pulmonary valve replacement using a hybrid approach in animals with large right ventricular outflow tracts...

..The goal of this study was to develop a device for percutaneous replacement of the tricuspid valve in animals...

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..To evaluate the results of surgical revascularization in children with coronary artery lesions following neonatal arterial switch operation (ASO)...

..To compare Cheatham Platinum (CP) stent and Palmaz stent for the treatment of native and postoperative lesions of congenital heart disease (CHD) patients...

..The aim of the study was to investigate the accuracy of cardiac-non-gated CT using 64-slice technology in detecting congenital pulmonary vein stenosis in children...

..In conclusion, these data show that LAD ligation is not only a model of acute MI, but at mid-term it provides a model of chronic ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy...

..We evaluate early results of bovine jugular vein conduits in the pulmonary outflow...

..We report our initial experience with percutaneous pulmonary valve replacement in animals with large pulmonary trunks, using a modified percutaneous approach...

..The purpose of this study was to compare the diagnostic accuracy of 64-slice CT with that of invasive angiography in the detection of graft and/or coronary angioplasty stenosis in children who had undergone coronary artery surgery...

..Neonatal aortic coarctation presenting with multiorgan failure is a life threatening condition...

..In large animals, we tested an off-label adjustable gastric banding system for pulmonary artery banding...

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..The objective of the present study was to identify noninvasive biomarkers of endothelial turnover that could be used to identify congenital heart disease patients at risk of irreversible PAH...

..Our report shows for the first time that patients with OSA, PFO, and desaturation at exercise should be considered candidates to PFO closure, even in the absence of cerebral events...

..Multiplanar and 3-D reconstruction offer invaluable information to plan the best therapeutic strategy in this setting. We provide evidence for the expanding clinical role of MSCT for coronary artery imaging in children...

..Conduit replacement with resection of the aneurysmal part of the failing conduit was performed. Supported conduits do not eliminate the risk of secondary dilatation below the artificial ring but preserve valvular function...

..Occlusion of the femoral veins is a frequent complication of cardiac catheterization in small children. If the venous femoral approach is not available, a jugular approach is generally used for catheterization of the right heart...

..No device has been specially designed and closure of extracardiac fenestration, in particular, can be challenging. We report our experience in occlusion of such fenestrations using covered stents (Numed Inc)...

..The purpose of this study was to describe our experience concerning the use of covered Cheatham Platinum (CP) stent in patients with fenestrated total cavopulmonary connection (TCPC)...

..CONCLUSION: The ADO device allowed closing the extracardiac Fontan fenestration in all patients with no mortality, no morbidity and a rate of 100% of complete closure at mid-term follow-up...

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..The aim of our study was to establish the prevalence and the prognostic value of haematological abnormalities in children with cardiac failure...

..When not associated with other cardiac anomalies, small pulmonary windows can occasionally be closed in old children in the catheterisation laboratory. We describe the percutaneous closure of a small aorto-pulmonary window in a 7 kg boy...

..Simple modifications should result in fewer problems of dynamic obstruction and stent fracture, and lead to proposing this technique for native pulmonary outflow tracts...

..At 11 months he had substitution of the PTFE tube and bidirectional cavopulmonary anastomosis; he is now waiting for biventricular correction...

..The internal jugular route can be an alternative for closure of interatrial communications with difficult access...

..In both patients, symptoms resolved after rerouting of the hepatic venous blood to the lungs...

..p < 0.0001) but it was poor in those with multiple ASD (y = 12.4 + 0.4x; r = 0.45). The calibration by the balloon method which tests the septum resistance is an additive method to 3D-TEE which measures the anatomic diameter of ASD...

..This prospective study demonstrates that 9 out of 10 patients who had the 3D criteria had a percutaneous closure of the septal defect...

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..This procedure was completed 3 months later by the implantation of a second 8 mm Amplatzer prosthesis for persistent haemolysis. Closure of the paraseptal regurgitation resulted in a reduction of the patient's transfusional requirements...

..Surgical treatment for lesions of the initial aorta and the atrioventricular valves improves the short-term prognosis but the risk of re-intervention is higher...

..Our data demonstrate that RCA is well preserved after neonatal surgical cutdown; asymptomatic obstruction can occasionally be present...

..Financial implications are not of major concern...

..Percutaneous transcatheter closure of coronary fistulae, although generally feasible is burdened by complications due to tortuous anatomy, poor stabilisation of catheters and lack of specific materials...

..We report the multicentric French experience with transcatheter closure in children weighing 15 kilograms or less, with the aim of assessing the efficacy of the procedure in this age group...

..Indeed, the interruption of coronary venous drainage could potentially lead to myocardial ischemia and necrosis...