Assessment of Left Ventricular Volume and Function Using Real-Time 3D Echocardiography versus Angiocardiography in Children with Tetralogy of Fallot

BACKGROUND: Evaluation of left ventricular (LV) size and function is one of the important reasons for performing echocardiography. Real time three dimensional echocardiography (RT3DE) is now available for a precise non-invasive ventricular volumetry. Aim of work was to validate RT3DE as a non-invasive cardiac imaging method for measurement of LV volumes using cardiac angiography as the reference technique. METHODS: Prospective study on 40 consecutive patients with tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) referred for cardiac catheterization for preoperative assessment. Biplane cineangiography, conventional 2 dimensional echocardiography (2DE) and RT3DE were performed for the patients. A control group of 18 age and sex matched children was included and 2DE and RT3DE were performed for them. RESULTS: The mean LV end diastolic volume (LVEDV) and LVEDV index (LVEDVI) measured by RT3DE of patients were lower than controls (p value = 0.004, 0.01, respectively). There was strong correlation between the mean value of the LVEDV and the LVEDVI measured by RT3DE and angiography (r = 0.97, p < 0.001). The mean value of LV ejection fraction measured by RT3DE was lower than that assessed by 2DE (50 ± 6.2%, 65 ± 4.6%, respectively, p value < 0.001) in the studied TOF cases. There was good intra- and inter-observer reliability for all measurements. CONCLUSION: RT3DE is a noninvasive and feasible tool for measurement of LV volumes that strongly correlates with LV volumetry done by angiography in very young infants and children, and further studies needed.

Musculoskeletal pain among computer users

The main objective is to assess muscle pain as an effect of utilizing computers for more than five hours. To identify the variables that play a part in the occurrence of the pain and the measures taken to tackle and prevent the musculoskeletal problems. It is a descriptive study conducted on 249 subjects in different private organizations in UAE. All those who mentioned wrist, back or neck pain without any pre-existing musculoskeletal problems among those who work on computer for more than 5 hours were included in the study. Questionnaires were distributed to all those who satisfied the inclusion criteria in each of the offices identified. The completed questionnaires were collected within two to three days. A significant association was noticed between age and wrist pain and no significant association was observed between gender, onset of pain and wrist pain. Higher frequency of back pain was noticed in older age group compared to younger. Neck pain was found to be higher among participants between 60-69 years of age. The incidence of pain in the wrist was more in men than in women and a similar pattern was seen in hand and back pain too. Our study shows a positive relation between sleep hours and musculoskeletal pain. We concluded that wrist, neck and back pain is more prevalent in younger age groups and it increases as the duration of computer use increases. Pain was a problem in majority of people working on computer for more than 5 hours