scholarly journals Down syndrome and moyamoya: clinical presentation and surgical management

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred P. See ◽  
Alexander E. Ropper ◽  
Daniel L. Underberg ◽  
Richard L. Robertson ◽  
R. Michael Scott ◽  
...  

OBJECT Moyamoya can cause cerebral ischemia and stroke in Down syndrome (DS) patients. In this study, the authors defined a surgically treated population of patients with DS and moyamoya and compared their clinical presentation, response to surgical treatment, and long-term prognosis with those of the general population of patients with moyamoya but without DS. METHODS This study was a retrospective review of a consecutive operative series of moyamoya patients with DS treated at Boston Children’s Hospital from 1985 through 2012. RESULTS Thirty-two patients, average age 9.7 years (range 1.8–29.3 years), underwent surgery for moyamoya in association with DS. The majority presented with ischemic symptoms (87% stroke, 42% transient ischemic attacks). Twenty-four patients (75%) had congenital heart disease. Nineteen patients (59%) had bilateral moyamoya on presentation, and 13 presented with unilateral disease, of which 2 progressed to surgery on the opposite side at a later date. Patients were followed for a median of 7.5 years (1–20.2 years) after surgery, with no patients lost to follow-up. Follow-up arteriography demonstrated Matsushima Grade A collaterals in 29 of 39 (74%) hemispheres, Grade B in 5 (13%), and Grade C in 5 (13%). Complications included postoperative strokes in 2 patients, which occurred within 48 hours of surgery in both; one of these patients had arm weakness and the other confusion (both had recovered completely at follow-up). Seizures occurred in 5 patients perioperatively, including one who had a new seizure disorder related to hypocalcemia. CONCLUSIONS Moyamoya disease is a cause of stroke in patients with DS. Both the incidence of preoperative stroke (87% vs 67%) and the average age at diagnosis for children under age 21 (8.4 vs 6.5 years) were greater in patients with DS and moyamoya than in the general moyamoya surgical population, suggesting a possible delay in reaching a correct diagnosis of the cause of cerebral ischemia in the DS patient population. Pial synangiosis provided long-term protection from stroke in all patients treated.

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-167
Author(s):  
Gabriela GANEA ◽  
◽  
Mihaela Adela IANCU ◽  
Dumitru MATEI ◽  
◽  
...  

Coarctation of the aorta is a relatively frequent congenital heart disease. Depending on the severity of the coarctation and the possible existence of other congenital heart defects, the symptoms may vary. In the neonatal period, the patients may have signs of heart failure, hypoperfusion or even shock. Coarctation of the aorta can be diagnosed incidentally in adolescence or adulthood, usually presented with mild symptoms. The patient’s anatomy, size, age, and clinical course are taken into consideration when choosing the appropriate treatment. Although associated morbidity and mortality risks regarding surgical or interventional treatment are relatively low, it is neccesary to etabilsh a long term follow-up, given the possible post-surgical complications that may occur: recoarctation, aortic aneurysm, aortic dissection and hypertension. Long term prognosis of these patients mostly depends on the presence of systemic hypertension with its consequences leading to premature cardiovascular events. Another factor is the severity of associated defects: aortic stenosis, mitral valve abnormalities. The purpose of this review is to describe the main treatmet methods, indications for intervention and possible complications of the surgical and interventional treatment.


Author(s):  
Sheila B. Buijs ◽  
Sanne K. Stuart ◽  
Jan Jelrik Oosterheert ◽  
Steffi Karhof ◽  
Andy I. M. Hoepelman ◽  
...  

AbstractWe evaluated the long-term serological follow-up of patients with vascular risk factors for chronic Q fever that were previously Coxiellaburnetii seropositive. C. burnetii phase I IgG titers were reevaluated in patients that gave informed consent or retrospectively collected in patients already deceased or lost to follow-up. Of 107 patients, 25 (23.4%) became seronegative, 77 (72.0%) retained a profile of past resolved Q fever infection, and five (4.7%) developed chronic Q fever. We urge clinicians to stay vigilant for chronic Q fever beyond two years after primary infection and perform serological testing based on clinical presentation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Wei ◽  
Xianhong Fang ◽  
Michael Shehata ◽  
Xunzhang Wang ◽  
Xianzhang Zhan ◽  
...  

Objectives: To study the benefit of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in evaluating ablation endpoints of accessory pathways (AP) and subsequent long-term prognosis.Methods: We reviewed consecutive patients with supraventricular tachycardias due to APs that underwent radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) from January 2016 to September 2018 in our center. The patients were divided into two groups: the ATP group (who had passed both the ATP test and PES after ablation as the endpoint) and the non-ATP group (who had passed PES only after ablation as the endpoint). We reviewed the patients' intra-cardiac electrograms and analyzed their long-term outcomes.Results: In total, 1,343 patients underwent successful RFCA. There were 215 patients in the ATP group with one lost to follow-up. There were 1,128 patients in the non-ATP group with 39 lost to follow-up. Twenty-three patients in the ATP group demonstrated additional electrophysiological entities due to ATP administration, including reappearance of the ablated APs in 16 patients, discovery of PES-undetected APs in 5, induction of atrial fibrillation in 5, premature atrial contractions in 1, and premature ventricular contractions in another. During the 7 to 39 months (average 24.4 ± 9.5 months) follow-up, the recurrence rate was 8.41% (18/214) in the ATP group and 6.80% (74/1,084) in the non-ATP group. In subjects with recurrence, 14 patients (14/18 = 77.8%) in the ATP group and 50 patients (50/74 = 67.6%) in the non-ATP group accepted redo ablations. Among the ATP-group, all the 14 redo APs were the old ones as before. Among the non-ATP-group, redo ablations confirmed that 39 APs were the old ones, while 20 APs were newly detected ones which had been missed previously. The difference in recurrent AP locations confirmed by redo procedures between the two groups was significant (p = 0.008). In the non-ATP group, 20 (40%) of redo cases were proven to have multiple APs, while 33 (3.3%) cases who did not suffer from recurrence had multiple APs. Existences of multiple APs in recurred cases were significantly higher than that in non-recurred ones in the non-ATP group (p < 0.001), while there was no such difference in the ATP group (p = 0.114).Conclusions: The existence of multiple APs was more common in recurrent cases if ATP was not used for confirmation of ablation endpoints. ATP probably has additional value over PES alone by detecting weak AP conductions. ATP can evoke atrial and ventricular arrhythmias.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 549-557
Author(s):  
Malia McAvoy ◽  
Heather J. McCrea ◽  
Vamsidhar Chavakula ◽  
Hoon Choi ◽  
Wenya Linda Bi ◽  
...  

OBJECTIVEFew studies describe long-term functional outcomes of pediatric patients who have undergone lumbar microdiscectomy (LMD) because of the rarity of pediatric disc herniation and the short follow-up periods. The authors analyzed risk factors, clinical presentation, complications, and functional outcomes of a single-institution series of LMD patients over a 19-year period.METHODSA retrospective case series was conducted of pediatric LMD patients at a large pediatric academic hospital from 1998 to 2017. The authors examined premorbid risk factors, clinical presentation, physical examination findings, type and duration of conservative management, indications for surgical intervention, complications, and postoperative outcomes.RESULTSOver the 19-year study period, 199 patients underwent LMD at the authors’ institution. The mean age at presentation was 16.0 years (range 12–18 years), and 55.8% were female. Of these patients, 70.9% participated in competitive sports, and among those who did not play sports, 65.0% had a body mass index greater than 25 kg/m2. Prior to surgery, conservative management had failed in 98.0% of the patients. Only 3 patients (1.5%) presented with cauda equina syndrome requiring emergent microdiscectomy. Complications included 4 cases of postoperative CSF leak (2.0%), 1 case of a noted intraoperative CSF leak, and 3 cases of wound infection (1.5%). At the first postoperative follow-up appointment, minimal or no pain was reported by 93.3% of patients. The mean time to return to sports was 9.8 weeks. During a mean follow-up duration of 8.2 years, 72.9% of patients did not present again after routine postoperative appointments. The total risk of reoperation was a rate of 7.5% (3.5% of patients underwent reoperation for the same level; 4.5% underwent adjacent-level decompression, and one patient [0.5%] ultimately underwent a fusion).CONCLUSIONSMicrodiscectomy is a safe and effective treatment for long-term relief of pain and return to daily activities among pediatric patients with symptomatic lumbar disc disease in whom conservative management has failed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qionghua Chen ◽  
Yuelin Shen ◽  
Hui Xu ◽  
Xiaolei Tang ◽  
Haiming Yang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Since public awareness of cystic fibrosis (CF) has increased, more children have been diagnosed with CF in China. This study aimed to investigate medical and other challenges faced by pediatric CF patients in China. Method Treatments and treatment outcomes were retrospectively analyzed for 46 pediatric CF patients diagnosed from August 2009 to June 2019. Pre- and post-treatment results were compared using independent samples t-test. Results Of 46 pediatric CF study patients, four died and five were lost to follow-up. Thirty-seven patients were monitored for 0.03 to 9.21 years; patients exhibited fewer attacks of respiratory tract infections after diagnosis (4.49 ± 2.13 episodes/year before diagnosis vs 1.97 ± 1.87 times/year after 1-year treatment, p < 0.05), significantly reduced sputum production and experienced 1.62 ± 1.71 exacerbations/year. Patient mean body mass index was 16.87 ± 3.53 and pancreatic malfunction persisted in 15 patients. For 17 children, no significant differences in lung function were found at follow-up as compared to lung function at diagnosis (FEV1: 82.45% ± 16.56% vs 75.26% ± 22.34%, FVC: 87.18% ± 13.64% vs 86.99% ± 19.95%, FEF75%: 46.51% ± 28.78% vs 36.63% ± 24.30%, P = 0.27, 0.97, 0.20, respectively). Pseudomonas aeruginosa (17/27) and bronchiectasis (22/22) were found during follow-up evaluation. Twenty-four patients (64.8%) maintained good adherence to therapies. Overall, azithromycin and tobramycin treatments were administered for 0.5–62 months and 0.5–48 months, respectively, and triggered no obvious adverse reactions. Conclusion No obvious declines in clinical presentation or lung function were found in Chinese pediatric CF patients after receiving standard therapeutic and active treatments, although malnutrition and low compliance were persistent challenges.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeong-Seon Lee ◽  
Joong-Gon Kim ◽  
Soyoung Lee

AbstractChildhood-onset polyarteritis nodosa (PAN) is a rare and systemic necrotising vasculitis in children affecting small- to medium-sized arteries. To date, there have been only a few reports because of its rarity. Thus, we aimed to investigate the clinical manifestations, laboratory findings, treatment, and long-term outcomes in patients with childhood-onset PAN and to evaluate the usefulness of the paediatric vasculitis activity score (PVAS). We retrospectively analysed the data of nine patients with childhood-onset PAN from March 2003 to February 2020. The median ages at symptom onset, diagnosis, and follow-up duration were 7.6 (3–17.5), 7.7 (3.5–17.6), and 7.0 (1.6–16.3) years, respectively. All patients had constitutional symptoms and skin manifestations, while five exhibited Raynaud’s phenomenon. Organ involvement was observed in one patient. The median PVAS at diagnosis was 7 (range: 2–32). Prednisolone was initially used for induction in all patients, and other drugs were added in cases refractory to prednisolone. All patients survived, but three patients with high PVAS at diagnosis experienced irreversible sequelae, including intracranial haemorrhage and digital amputation. In conclusion, early diagnosis and treatment may minimise sequelae in patients with childhood-onset PAN. This study suggests that high PVAS score at diagnosis may be associated with poor prognosis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 180
Author(s):  
Frédéric Bouisset ◽  
Jean-Bernard Ruidavets ◽  
Jean Dallongeville ◽  
Marie Moitry ◽  
Michele Montaye ◽  
...  

Background: Available data comparing long-term prognosis according to the type of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) are scarce, contradictory, and outdated. Our aim was to compare short- and long-term mortality in ST-elevated (STEMI) and non-ST-elevated myocardial infarction (non-STEMI) ACS patients. Methods: Patients presenting with an inaugural ACS during the year 2006 and living in one of the three areas in France covered by the Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascular Disease (MONICA) registry were included. Results: A total of 1822 patients with a first ACS—1121 (61.5%) STEMI and 701 (38.5%) non-STEMI—were included in the study. At the 28-day follow-up, the mortality rates were 6.7% and 4.7% (p = 0.09) for STEMI and non-STEMI patients, respectively, and after adjustment of potential confounding factors, the 28-day probability of death was significantly lower for non-STEMI ACS patients (Odds Ratio = 0.58 (0.36–0.94), p = 0.03). At the 10-year follow-up, the death rates were 19.6% and 22.8% (p = 0.11) for STEMI and non-STEMI patients, respectively, and after adjustment of potential confounding factors, the 10-year probability of death did not significantly differ between non-STEMI and STEMI events (OR = 1.07 (0.83–1.38), p = 0.59). Over the first year, the mortality rate was 7.2%; it then decreased and stabilized at 1.7% per year between the 2nd and 10th year following ACS. Conclusion: STEMI patients have a worse vital prognosis than non-STEMI patients within 28 days following ACS. However, at the 10-year follow-up, STEMI and non-STEMI patients have a similar vital prognosis. From the 2nd year onwards following the occurrence of a first ACS, the patients become stable coronary artery disease patients with an annual mortality rate in the 2% range, regardless of the type of ACS they initially present with.


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