BACKGROUND There is a growing body of evidence that most of the major cardiac abnormalities can be diagnosed at 14-15 weeks of gestation. We present our experience of early fetal echocardiography. MATERIALS AND METHODS This is a retrospective cohort study of women referred for early fetal echocardiography at 13-16 weeks of gestation at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Sydney Ultrasound for Wo...

STUDY DESIGN Retrospective study. PURPOSE To identify the incidence of congenital cardiac abnormalities in patients who had scoliosis and underwent surgical treatment for scoliosis. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE Congenital and idiopathic scoliosis (IS) are associated with cardiac abnormalities. We sought to establish and compare the incidence of congenital cardiac abnormalities in patients with id...

Congenital absence of the pericardium is a rare cardiac defect with variable clinical presentations and is usually discovered incidentally. The pathology may lead to serious complications such as incarceration of cardiac tissue, myocardial ischemia, aortic dissection or valvular insufficiency. Diagnosis is not difficult so long as some tips are remembered. We present the cases of two patients w...

Quadricuspid aortic valve is a rare congenital heart defect. The authors present a case of this anomaly in a young, asymptomatic adolescent who presented to the echocardiography laboratory for further evaluation of a cardiac murmur detected on routine physical examination. Imaging revealed a quadricuspid aortic valve with aortic regurgitation. This case highlights the importance of auscultation...

BACKGROUND Hybrid treatment of congenital heart disease is indicated in a selected group of borderline patients who do not have clear indications for either surgery or interventional treatment. Hybrid procedures take the best from cardiac surgery and interventional cardiology to reduce patient risk and trauma. Hybrid closure of ventricular septal defect (VSD) and atrial septal defect (ASD) with...

Asymmetric septal hypertrophy, or ASH, is a genetically determined myocardial disorder that is transmitted as an autosomal dominant trait. ASH is characterized by a disproportionately thickened ventricular septum that contains numerous hypertrophied, bizarrely-shaped and disorganized cardiac muscle cells. Disproportionate hypertrophy of the ventricular septum has also been observed in associati...

OBJECTIVES This study assessed the impact of cardiac risk assessment using gated single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) on cardiac events in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. METHODS We evaluated 215 asymptomatic patients who began dialysis between January 2005 and April 2009. Baseline electrocardiography and echocardiography were performed in all the patients. The subjects...

Previous studies have suggested that the GATA4 transcription factor plays an important role in regulating mammalian cardiac development. In the studies described in this report we have used gene targeting to produce GATA4-deficient mice. Homozygous GATA4-deficient (GATA4-/-) mice died between 8.5 and 10.5 days post coitum (dpc). GATA4-/- embryos displayed severe defects in both rostral-to-cauda...