Background and aimsHealth-related quality of life (HRQOL) has garnered increasing interest especially for health care providers and researchers. The study aims to evaluate the HRQOL in parents of congenital heart disease (CHD) children, and to clarify the effect of the disease severity on the outcome of the HRQOL perception. Also, to analyze the internal consistency of the Arabic version of the World Health Organization (WHO) QOL-BREEF tool in order to determine whether the tool had good validity for the target population.MethodsA cross-sectional study. The HRQOL perception was evaluated using WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire, and the internal consistency of the tool was tested using Cronbach’s alpha (α-C),ResultsThe study sample consisted of 200 individuals, 120 parents of CHD children, compared to 80 parents of children with minor illnesses (mean age of participating parents = 35.1 ± 9.8 years). While evaluating the HRQOL, the group of parents of children with minor illnesses had higher scores than the total group of parents of CHD children in all domains, indicating a better HRQOL.Class-IV subgroup of parents of CHD children showed the most significant lower total score of domains between all classes (44.47 ± 12, p < 0.001). With respect to the internal consistency of the WHOQOL-BREF, estimation of α-C values were 0.84 points for the group of parents of CHD children, and 0.87 for the group of parents of children with minor illnesses.ConclusionsThis short-term study emphasized that, HRQOL scores among parents of CHD children are compromised, and the severity of their children illness significantly affect the total score of domains in their HRQOL perception. Furthermore, the tool showed to be practical and efficient to evaluate the QOL of parents of CHD children in our population in future researches.

Congenital aneurysm of the right atrial appendage is a rare cardiac anomaly with only a few reported cases in the literature. Most of the cases involved adults in their third decade of life. We report a case of congenital aneurysm of the right atrial appendage in a newborn, who initially presented with jaundice and incidentally discovered systolic murmur. The diagnosis was established by enhanced CT scan of the chest and echocardiography that also showed atrial septal defect (ASD) and multiple ventricular septal defects (VSDs). Because of its rare occurrence, diagnosis is difficult and the symptoms may be confused with other causes of right atrial dilation such as Ebstein's anomaly.

Introduction Obstructed total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC) is one of the commonest seen emergencies in pediatric cardiology centers. Case presentation Our case was diagnosed to have this anomaly, showing early respiratory distress resulting from severe pulmonary congestion. Palliative stenting of the obstruction was done, which helped in stabilizing the debilitated hemodynamics of the baby before surgery, thus a good surgical outcome and prognosis are expected. Conclusion This intervention may be listed as a vital measurement in the preoperative cardiac stabilization plan for infants with obstructed TAPVC.