Background-Little is known about blood flow and its relationship to respiration during exercise in patients with total cavopulmonary connection (TCPC). Methods and Results-We studied 11 patients 12.4Ϯ4.6 years (meanϮSD) of age 5. facilitates IVC flow at rest but less so during exercise, when the peripheral pump seems to be more important.

In neonates born with a gestational age below 28 weeks the presence of a PDA on day 3 of life was associated with adverse outcome; this association was even more pronounced with a large PDA. Thus, early echocardiography may facilitate the identification of neonates suitable for a targeted approach to intervention in future randomised controlled trials.

Patients with ASD had a higher risk of first-time AF after closure than the comparison cohort. There was no effect of closure on the use of AF-related medicine in patients with prevalent AF.

BACKGROUND: Extracellular matrix alterations are important elements in the arterial changes seen in diabetes, being associated with increased vascular stiffness and the development of cardiovascular diseases. However, no biomarkers for diabetes-related arterial changes have been defined.

Given the limitations of a small prematurely terminated study, our results suggest that a-TAVI in its present form may be associated with complications and device success rates in low-risk patients similar or even inferior to those found in high-risk patients with aortic valve stenosis. This will probably change in the near future with improved catheter based devices and better pre-procedural assessment.