Selection of coil for transcatheter closure of small patent ductus arteriosus.

The authors reported the results in transcatheter coil occlusion of patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) less than 4 mm, based on a policy in selection of the appropriate type and number of coils for size of PDA. The authors used one 0.035 inch detachable coil, 5 mm in diameter, in PDA less than or equal to 2 mm, and two 0.035 inch detachable coils or one controlled release 0.052 inch Gianturco coil in PDA larger than 2 mm. The present study included 32 pediatric patients. There were 31 cases of successful coil implantation and 1 case failed. Of the 31 successful cases, PDA size varied from 1.4 to 4.0 mm (mean of 2.7 +/- 0.9 mm). Ten patients had a PDA size of less than or equal to 2 mm (group A), while the other 21 patients had a PDA size of larger than 2 mm (group B). In group A, 9 cases had single-detachable-coil occlusion and one case had double-detachable-coil occlusion. In group B, double-detachable-coil occlusion was performed in 17 cases and controlled release 0.052 inch coil in 4 cases. There were no cases of coil migration or other serious complications. The immediate complete occlusion rate was 58 per cent (18 of 31 cases), which rose to 97 per cent (30 of 31 cases) at the mean follow-up of 2.6 +/- 2.5 months (range from 1 day to 9 months). Transcatheter coil occlusion is an alternative to surgical closure of small PDA (less than 4 mm). Selection of type and number of coils appropriate to the size of PDA will allow safe and excellent results.

Myocardial diseases in Thai children.

Myocardial diseases are among the important causes of mortality and morbidity in children. This drew the authors attention to the study of myocardial diseases in children to find out the outcome, factors affecting the outcome, and management strategies. The authors retrospectively studied children who had been diagnosed with primary myocardial diseases at six university hospitals in Thailand from January 1996 to December 2000. The total number of cases was 209 which accounted for 1.2 per cent of cardiovascular diseases in children. The patients' ages ranged from 0.1-15 years. These myocardial diseases included dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) 45 per cent, acute myocarditis 27.3 per cent, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) 18.2 per cent, hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM) 8.1 per cent and restrictive cardiomyopathy (RCM) 1.4 per cent. Fifty-six per cent of the patients were female. Congestive heart failure was the most common presenting symptom (75%). Median ejection fraction (EF) of acute myocarditis was 42 per cent (15-79%) which was significantly higher than DCM (33.5%, 10-57%). Serum cardiac troponin T (cTnT) was also significantly higher in acute myocarditis than in DCM (0.08 ng/ml, 0.01-0.16 vs 0.01 ng/ml, 0.01-0.10). Within the follow-up period of 1 year (0.1-5.5 years), the mortality rates were 18.8 per cent, 17.0 per cent, 5.4 per cent and 33.3 per cent in DCM, acute myocarditis, HCM and RCM respectively. Factors associated with the mortality rate in acute myocarditis were admission to ICU and low left ventricular EF at presentation while IVIG administration and cTnT level did not. Conclusion: Primary myocardial diseases are uncommon. Most of the patients had compromised cardiovascular reserve. Admission to ICU and low EF were factors that affected the mortality in acute myocarditis while intravenous immunoglobulin administration did not. Mortality rate in the subacute follow-up period was high in all groups.