Stenting the patent arterial duct to increase pulmonary blood flow.

BACKGROUND: Use of surgically created aoropulmonary shunt is well-established for improving pulmonary blood flow in infants with critical reduction in pulmonary blood flow. Recently, stenting the patent ductus arteriosus has emerged as an alternative in selected infants with congenital heart disease and reduced pulmonary blood flow. METHODS AND RESULTS: We reviewed records of consecutive infants undergoing stenting of patent ductus arteriosus between August 2003 and October 2005 at our institution. Two of 12 patients underwent patent ductus arteriosus stenting to facilitate preparation of left ventricle for transposition with intact septum. We report the case selection, technique, immediate and short-term follow-up outcome in the remaining 10 patients [median age: 16 days (range 4-290 days): weight 2.7 kg (range 2-6 kg)] with reduced pulmonary blood flow who underwent stenting of patent ductus arteriosus as an alternative to conventional surgical aortopulmonary shunts. Five of the 6 newborns were prostaglandin-dependent and 4 had previously undergone guidewire perforation of the pulmonary valve (n=2) or balloon dilation (n=2). Successful stent implantation was accomplished in all with no major patient-related complication (median fluoroscopy time: 18.6 min; range: 7.7-72 min). The intensive care unit and hospital stays were prolonged in 3 patients because of sepsis (n=2) and pulmonary over-circulation with sepsis (n=1). On follow-up (median 5.5 months; range 1-19 months) all implanted stents were patent. One patient underwent re-dilation of the implanted stent for declining saturations. CONCLUSIONS: The immediate and short-term follow-up results of stenting of the patent arterial duct, as an alternative to the surgical aortopulmonary shunt in carefully selected newborns and infants is encouraging.

Beneficial effects of garlic (Allium sativum Linn) on rats fed with diets containing cholesterol and either of the oil seeds, coconuts or groundnuts.

Feeding of 2% cholesterol diet increased lipid parameters in serum and tissues of rats during a period of one month. In addition to the above, lipid peroxidation also increased and activities of certain enzymes were significantly altered in the tissues. Similar changes were also observed to a greater extent with diets containing 40% by weight of coconut kernel or groundnut with and without 2% cholesterol. The enzymes studied were HMGCoA reductase, AST, ALT and ALP in tissues and serum as the case may be. In general the atherogenic effects were observed more with groundnut containing diets than those with coconut. Even though the oil from the former is mostly unsaturated and that from the latter is mostly saturated, these analytical criteria do not relate to their atherogenic effects. When 5% garlic was incorporated with any of the high fat diets, the lipid parameters, their peroxidation and alterations in enzyme activities were significantly decreased. These results show that garlic contains some principles that counteract the atherogenicity of the above oil seeds.