Avaliação cardíaca por métodos não invasivos em filhos de portadoras de lúpus eritematoso sistêmico / Noninvasive cardiac assessment in children of women with systemic lupus erythematosus

OBJECTIVE: Noninvasive cardiac assessment of newborns and infants of women with systemic lupus erythematosus. The children had no congenital total atrioventricular block and were compared with the children of healthy women. METHODS: We prospectively assessed 13 newborns and infants aged 1 to 60 days, children of women with systemic lupus erythematosus and without congenital total atrioventricular block. These children were compared with 30 children of women who had no lupus or anti-Ro/SSA antibodies, and no risk factors for congenital heart disease either. Their age groups matched. The following examinations were performed: cardiological physical examination, electrocardiography, echocardiography, and signal-averaged electrocardiography. RESULTS: The statistical analysis showed no significant difference in ventricular function or in the cardiac conduction system between the groups. CONCLUSION: In regard to the conduction system and ventricular function in the absence of total atrioventricular block, no statistically significant difference was observed between the children of women with systemic lupus erythematosus and children of healthy women

Sindrome de Marfan. Forma precoce e grave em irmãos / Marfan's syndrome: early and severe form in siblings

Marfan's syndrome is an inherited disorder of the connective tissue. Cardiologic manifestations, especially aortic dilation, are important causes of morbidity and mortality in the clinical course of the disease in adults and teenagers. In children, the presence of aortic aneurysm and its dissection or rupture is rare, occurring in patients with genetic mutation of the fibrillin gene but not in those who have the familial form of the disease. We describe here 2 patients, from the same family (siblings), diagnosed with gigantic aortic aneurysm early in infancy, one of them successfully undergoing surgery

Endocardite por estreptococo beta-hemolítico em adolescente portador de cardiomiopatia hipertrófica / Beta-hemolytic streptococcus endocarditis in an adolescent with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

A 15 year-old male adolescent was hospitalized in a severe septic condition, due to infectious endocarditis which abided for 20 days. The admittance echocardiogram displayed a mitral valve vegetation in conjunction to a hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. In spite of applied antibiotics the patient expired. The authors emphasize the diagnostic difficulties of this compound entity and stress the need of antibiotic prophylaxis for patients who bear a hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, even in those with a non-obstructive disposition