Levoatrial cardinal vein (LACV) is anomalous connection between the left atrium or pulmonary veins and any systemic vein which is derived from cardinal venous system. Presence of the levoatrial cardinal vein without a cardiac anomaly is a very rare congenital anomaly of the systemic venous return. In the literature, no LACV anomaly was found in two siblings who were asymptomatic and did not have an additional cardiac anomaly. Therefore, we present two cases ( two siblings ) the symptoms, diagnosis (the echocardiographic finding, computed tomography (CT) and aniographic images ) and treatment modalities of isolated levoatrial cardinal vein.

Objective: Surgical closure of ventricular septal defect is still the most common pediatric cardiac surgical procedure. The aim of this study was to define the risk factors of the complications of ventricular septal defect surgery. Methods: We evaluated the preoperative, perioperative, and postoperative data from echocardiography reports, perfusion reports, and clinical, inpatient, and operative notes of all the patients. The following were the outcome variables for this study: in-hospital death; duration of mechanical ventilation in hours; duration of pediatric intensive care unit stay in days; and duration of hospital stay in days. Herein, we report our single pediatric cardiac center experience between October 2015 and October 2018. Results: A total of 108 patients underwent surgical ventricular septal defect closure during the study period. Prolonged pediatric intensive care unit stay, hospital stay and mechanical ventilation time was associated with younger age and low weight. The patients with genetic syndromes had statistically longer mechanical ventilation time (p < 0.001), pediatric intensive care unit stay (p < 0.001), and hospital stay (p = 0.002). Conclusion: Although genetic syndromes did not affect the complication rates, it affected the lengths of hospital and pediatric intensive care unit stays and mechanical ventilation duration. Young age and lower body weight was a risk factor of prolonged hospitalization, prolonged pediatric intensive care unit stay and prolonged mechanical ventilation. Therefore, these situations should be considered in the postoperative follow-up of patients with ventricular septal defect.

Abstract Background/aim: Two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography (2D-STE) is a novel method that allows the assessment of regional myocardial function. The aim of our study was to use 2D-STE to assess left ventricular deformation in patients with coarctation of the aorta (CoA). Methods: In this prospective study, patients with CoA (n = 42) and healthy controls (n = 39) were recruited. Children with CoA who visited the outpatient clinic between 2013 and 2014 were included. The data were compared with those obtained from the sex- and age-matched controls. Results: The mean age of the patients was 5.8 ± 4.5 years. Global longitidinal strain based on all three apical views and total global strain values did not appear to be different between the patient and the control group (p = 0.59, p = 0.51, p = 0.15, p = 0.38). Hypertension was detected in 14 (33.3%) patients with CoA. There were significant differences between the global longitudinal strain values of the normotensive CoA subgroup and the hypertensive CoA subgroup (p < .05). Conclusions: In our study, we found that 2D-STE total strain analysis of patients with CoA was not different from comparative healthy controls. However, we determined that 2D-STE parameters were lower in the hypertensive CoA subgroup compared to the normotensive CoA subgroup.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze the frequency and results of congenital heart defects (CHD) in multipl pregnancies by fetal echocardiography. Method: This retrospective study was conducted at our hospital between January 2016 and September 2019. A total of 9440 pregnant women were enrolled in this study, including 241 were multiple pregnancies. (232 twins, 7 triplets and 2 quadruplets). Results: The prevalence of CHD was significantly higher in twin pregnancies (p=0.05). The rate of CHD was present in singletons 4.31% and twins 8.7%. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups with respect to rate of critical congenital heart disease (p=0.32). Conclusion: Multiple pregnancies had increased congenital heart defect risk compared with singleton. Therefore, it is important to refer for fetal echocardiography when necessary.