RATIONALE The second heart field (SHF) contains progenitors of all heart chambers, excluding the left ventricle. The SHF is patterned, and the anterior region is known to be destined to form the outflow tract and right ventricle. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to map the fate of the posterior SHF (pSHF). METHODS AND RESULTS We examined the contribution of pSHF cells, labeled by lipophi...

The patient was a 60-year-old man with encephalopathy without liver cirrhosis. CT angiography revealed a patent ductus venosus between the anterior segmental branch of the portal vein and the middle hepatic vein. Coils were framed in the patent ductus venosus and then used to fill in the frame. After treatment, transarterial portography showed that the shunt flow of the ductus venosus had decre...

AIM To assess ultrasonographically the flow pattern and the time of postnatal closure of ductus venosus related to the other fetal shunts. METHODS Fifty healthy, term neonates were studied from day 1 up to day 18 using a VingMed CFM 800A ultrasound scanner. RESULTS Ductus arteriosus was closed in 94% of the infants before day 3. Ductus venosus, however, was closed in only 12% at the same ti...

Experimental studies regarding coronary embryogenesis suggest that the endocardium is a source of endothelial cells for the myocardial networks. As this was not previously documented in human embryos, we aimed to study whether or not endothelial tip cells could be correlated with endocardial-dependent mechanisms of sprouting angiogenesis. Six human embryos (43-56 days) were obtained and process...

Objective: To discuss the anatomical features of sinus venosus atrial defect on the basis of a comprehensive transoesophageal echocardiography (TOE) examination and its relation to surgical data. Methods: 24 patients (13 men, 11 women, mean (SD) age 37 (17) years, range 17–73 years) with a posterior interatrial communication closely related to the entrance of the superior (SVC) or inferior vena...

BACKGROUND Autonomic dysregulation has been recently reported as a feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the nature of autonomic atypicalities in ASD remain largely unknown. The goal of this study was to characterize the cardiac autonomic profile of children with ASD across four domains affected in ASD (anxiety, attention, response inhibition, and social cognition), and suggested ...