Objective: To find out characteristics and clinical features of children presenting with acute myocarditis at a tertiary care hospital. Study Design: Observational Study. Setting: Department of Pediatrics, Sughra Shafi Medical Complex, Sahara Medical College, Narowal, Pakistan. Period: February 2020 to February 2021. Material & Methods: A total of 71 children aged 1 month to 15 years admitted with acute myocarditis were enrolled. Acute myocarditis was labeled as short history of illness in otherwise healthy child, echocardiography evident of left ventricular dysfunctioning, cardiac biomarkers showing cardiac damage as well as electrocardiography showing acute myocarditis. Age was represented as mean and standard deviation whereas qualitative variables like gender, area of residence and clinical features were shown as frequency and percentages. Results: Out of a total of 71 children, there were 38 (53.5%) were male. Median age was recorded to be 16.6 months. Majority of the cases, 42 (59.2%) belonged to rural areas of residence. Tachycardia was the commonest clinical feature noted in 65 (91.5%) children, irritability was seen in 50 (70.4%), tachypnea in 48 (67.6%) while poor feeding was noted 44 (62.0%) children. Hepatomegaly was noted in 39 (54.9%) children. Hypotension was recorded in 35 (49.3%) children. Conclusion: Male predominance was seen among children presenting with acute myocarditis. Tachycardia, irritability, tachypnea and poor feeding were the commonest clinical features observed.

Objective: To find out the effectiveness of prophylactic parenteral paracetamol to minimize rates of ductus patency among preterm infants. Study Design: Case-control study. Setting: Department of Pediatrics, Sughra Shafi Medical Complex, Sahara Medical College, Narowal, Pakistan. Period: March 2020 to February 2021. Material & Methods: A total of 70 neonates (35 cases and 35 controls) having gestational age less than or equal to 34 weeks were enrolled. All 35 cases were administered prophylactic parenteral paracetamol as 20 mg per kg stat and 7.5 mg per kg 6 hourly for 1st 3 days of life while all controls were given no drugs. Echocardiography was performed in all 70 neonates after 1st three post-natal days to identify PDA. Data was analyzed using SPSS 26.0. Results: In a total of 70 neonates, 37 (52.9%) were male and 33 (47.1%) female. Overall, mean gestational age was noted to be 32.1+1.47 weeks while mean body weight was recorded to be 1424.6+229.7 grams. There were 6 neonates (17.1%) among cases who were found to have PDA in comparison to 23 (65.7%) in controls (p<0.0001). Four (11.4%) neonates died in case group in comparison to 7 (20.0%) among controls (p=0.3245). Mean duration of hospitalization was recorded to be 20.52+8.2 days in case group in comparison to 24.81+4.6 days among controls (p=0.0088). Conclusion: Prophylactic parenteral paracetamol was found to prevent ductus patency among preterm neonates. In comparison to controls, duration of hospital stay was significantly short among neonates who were administered prophylactic parenteral paracetamol.

Objective: To find out pattern along with age and gender wise distribution of congenital heart disease (CHD). Study Design: Cross Sectional study. Setting: Department of Pediatrics, Sughra Shafi Medical Complex, Narowal. Period: January 2019 to February 2020. Material & Methods: During the study period, a total of 151 children aged between 1 month to 15 years as confirmed case of CHD according to echocardiography were enrolled for this study. Gender, age categories, area of residence and types of CHDs were represented as frequency and percentages. Patients with different types of CHDs were distributed between both gender and different age categories. SPSS version 26.0 was used to handle and analyze all study related data. Results: During the study period, a total of 151 confirmed cases of CHD were enrolled. There were 82 (54.3%) male and 69 (45.7%) female representing a male to female ratio of 1.2:1. Most of the cases were aged less than 1 year. There were 118 (78.1%) children below 1 year of age while 22 (14.6%) between 1 to 5 years of age and 11 (7.3%) above 5 years of age. Ventricular septal defect (VSD) and ASD were noted to be the most frequent types of acyanotic heart lesions in 41 (27.2%) and 29 (19.2%) cases respectively whereas TOF was the most frequent type of cyanotic heart lesion in 23 (15.2%) cases. Conclusion: VSD followed by ASD and TOF were noted to be the most frequent types of CHD.

Objective: To find out clinical profile and etiological agents involved in Pediatric infective endocarditis. Study Design: A descriptive observational study. Place and Duration of the Study: The Department of Pediatrics, Sughra Shafi Medical Complex, Sahara Medical College, Narowal, Pakistan from April 2017 to March 2021. Material and Methods: A total of 195 children of both genders aged below 14 years and having endocarditis were enrolled. Endocarditis was labeled as per modified Duke’s criteria. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 26.0. Quantitative data like age was represented as mead and standard deviation. Qualitative data like gender, area of residence, clinical presentation, types of isolated microorganisms and underlying disease were shown as frequencies and percentages. Results: Out of a total of 195 children, 124 (63.6%) were male. Overall, mean age was noted to be 5.48+2.1 years. Fever was the commonest type of clinical presentation noted among 148 (75.9%) children followed by shortness of breath 101 (51.8%) and chest pain/discomfort 48 (24.6%). Congenital heart defects were the commonest form of underlying disease observed in 95 (48.7%) children. Blood culture findings revealed 112 (57.4%) samples to produce no growth while coagulase negative staphylococcus was the commonest etiological agent noted in 37 (19.0%) children. Conclusion: Majority of the children with infective endocarditis were male. Most common types of clinical presentation were fever and shortness of breath. Congenital heart defects formed major chunk of underlying disease. Coagulase negative staphylococcus was found to be the most common etiological agent. Keywords: Infective endocarditis, fever, shortness of breath, congenital heart defects.

Objective: To find out efficacy of sildenafil for the treatment of persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN). Study Design: Observational study. Setting: Department of Neonatology, Sughra Shafi Medical Complex, Sahara Medical College, Narowal. Period: May 2020 to April 2021. Material & Methods: A total of 22 neonates of both genders with diagnosis of PPHN were enrolled during the study period. Demographic characteristic along with information about perinatal and postnatal characteristics were recorded among all neonates at the time of admission. X-ray chest were asked. Oral sildenafil was administered as 2mg/kg per dose thrice a day to all study cases and continued till extubation. Outcome was recorded on the basis of difference in FiO2 need after initiating sildenafil, time required to get ventilator off or mortality. Results: Out of a total of 22 neonates, 13 (59.1%) were male. Majority of the neonates, 15 (68.2%) were term newborns. Mode of delivery was lower segment cesarean section in 17 (77.3%) cases. APGAR score at 5 minutes was between 7 to 10 in 13 (59.1%) newborns. There were 13 (59.1%) newborns who required immediate resuscitation following birth. Meconium aspiration syndrome was the commonest associated condition found among 8 (36.4%) neonates. As per echocardiographic findings, 13 (59.1%) neonates had severe PPHN, 5 (22.7%) moderate and 4 (18.2%) mild. Mean oxygenation index at the time of admission was noted to be 46+14. Inotropic support was administered to 19 (86.4%) cases. Mean length of neonatal intensive care unit was 15+5 days. Mortality was reported among 10 (45.4%) neonates. Conclusion: Oral sildenafil was found to be a promising option for the treatment of neonates having PPHN. Oral sildenafil was found to successfully improve oxygenation among neonates having PPHN.