Valve Repair in Aortic Insufficiency: A State-of-the-art Review.

Aortic valve insufficiency (AI) describes the pathology of blood leaking through the aortic valve to the left ventricle during diastole and is classified as mild, moderate or severe according to the volume of regurgitating blood. Intervention is required in severe AI when the patient is symptomatic or when the left ventricular function is impaired. Aortic valve replacement has been considered the gold standard for decades for these patients, but several repair techniques have recently emerged that offer exceptional stability and long-term outcomes. The appropriate method of repair is selected based on the mechanism of AI and each patient's anatomic variations. This review aims to describe different pathologies of AI based on its anatomy, along with the different surgical techniques of aortic repair and their reported results.

Thirty-Year Survival After Cardiac Surgery in Children With Williams-Beuren Syndrome (from the Pediatric Cardiac Care Consortium Study).

Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS) is a genetic condition frequently requiring interventions for associated congenital heart disease (CHD). Long-term survival data after cardiac interventions for children with WBS are sparse. This is a retrospective cohort study aiming to describe the 30-year survival outcomes of children with WBS after interventions for CHD using the Pediatric Cardiac Care Consortium (PCCC), a large North American-based registry of interventions for pediatric heart diseases, between 1982 and 2009. Outcomes were obtained from the PCCC and by linkage with the National Death Index through 2020. Survival of patients with WBS and their major subgroups was assessed by Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox regression. A total of 200 patients met the inclusion criteria of having their first intervention for CHD at a US PCCC center and age <21 years at time of intervention. The most common lesions were left heart obstructive lesions (LHOL), either in isolation (37%) or in combination with right heart obstructive lesions (RHOL) (49.0%), whereas isolated RHOL accounted for 11% of the total. The first procedure was surgery for 85.5% of the group, and the remainder underwent a transcatheter procedure. There were 5 in-hospital deaths (2.5%), and among survivors to hospital discharge, 164 had sufficient identifiers for National Death Index linkage. Over a median period of postdischarge follow-up of 23.7 years (interquartile range 18.7 to 27.3), 16 deaths occurred, with an overall 30-year survival rate of 90%. Survival rates ranged from 96.1% for isolated LHOL or RHOL to 83.4% for patients with combined disease (adjusted hazard ratio 4.7, 95% confidence intervals 1.35 to 16.59).

Introduction of ultrasound-based living anatomy into the medical curriculum: a survey on medical students' perceptions.

BACKGROUND: Traditional anatomy teaching methods are based on the models and cadaveric dissections, providing fixed views of the anatomical structures. However, in the last few years, the emerging concept of ultrasound-based teaching in anatomy has started to gain ground among medical curricula. This study aims to evaluate the integration of ultrasound as an adjunct tool to traditional anatomy teaching methods and explore students' perceptions of whether ultrasound-based teaching enhances their interest and knowledge of anatomy. A cross-sectional study was carried out among the students of the 6-year undergraduate entry (MD) and 4-year graduate entry (MBBS) program of the University of Nicosia. A questionnaire was distributed to them after the delivery of several twenty minutes ultrasound sessions by an expert in the field during anatomy practicals. The data were analyzed utilizing SPSS software, and the statistical significance was determined as p value < 0.05. RESULTS: 107 MD and 42 MBBS students completed the questionnaire. Both groups agreed that their ultrasound-based learning experience was good or excellent (79.4% MD students; 92.9% MBBS students), that it enhanced their knowledge of anatomy (68.2% MD students; 90.5% MBBS students) and boosted their confidence regarding their examination skills practice (69.2% MD students; 85.7% MBBS students). Although most students desired more time allocated to the ultrasound station (72% MD students; 85.7% MBBS students), they believed that ultrasound-based teaching is a necessary adjunct to the traditional teaching methods of anatomy (89.7% MD students; 92.9% MBBS students). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, MBBS students were more confident about the benefits of ultrasound-based teaching. Most of the students agreed that cross-sectional sessions of traditional teaching and ultrasound-based teaching strengthened their knowledge of anatomy and enhanced their confidence concerning their clinical examination skills. Medical schools should embrace the advantages that ultrasound-based teaching offers in order future doctors to be qualified to utilize ultrasound for procedural and diagnostical purposes.

Thirty-Year Survival after Cardiac Surgery for Patients with Turner Syndrome.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate long-term survival in patients with Turner syndrome after congenital heart surgery with a focus on left heart obstructive lesions (LHOLs). STUDY DESIGN: We queried the Pediatric Cardiac Care Consortium, a US-based registry of congenital heart surgery, for patients with Turner syndrome undergoing congenital heart surgery at <21 years of age between 1982 and 2011. Outcomes were obtained from the Pediatric Cardiac Care Consortium and from national death and transplant registries through 2019. Survival of patients with Turner syndrome and nonsyndromic patients with similar LHOL was compared by Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox regression adjusted for age, congenital heart disease, and era. RESULTS: We identified 179 patients with Turner syndrome operated for LHOL: 161 with 2-ventricle lesions (coarctation n = 149, aortic stenosis n = 12) and 18 with hypoplastic left heart (HLH) variants. There were 157 with 2-ventricle LHOL and 6 with HLH survived to discharge. Among survivors to hospital discharge, the 30-year transplant-free survival was 90.4% for Turner syndrome with 2-ventricle lesions and 90.9% for nonsyndromic comparators (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.15, 95% CI 0.64-2.04). The postdischarge survival for HLH was 33% for Turner syndrome and 51% for nonsyndromic patients, with these numbers being too small for meaningful comparisons. There was a higher risk for cardiovascular disease events in patients with Turner syndrome vs male (aHR 3.72, 95% CI 1.64-8.39) and female comparators (aHR 4.55, 95% CI 1.87-11.06) excluding heart failure deaths. CONCLUSIONS: The 30-year transplant-free survival is similar for patients with Turner syndrome and nonsyndromic comparators with operated 2-ventricle LHOL without excess congenital heart disease risk. However, patients with Turner Syndrome still face increased cardiovascular disease morbidity, stressing the importance of lifelong comorbidity surveillance in this population.

Importance of Ultrasound Education in Undergraduate Medical Curriculum: A Survey Study Based on First-Year Medical Students' Perception of the 6-Year Doctor of Medicine Program of the University of Nicosia Medical School in Cyprus.

Ultrasound imaging modality is a tool used in clinical practice and is being introduced gradually in the undergraduate curriculum of several medical schools worldwide. This study aims to assess medical students' perception regarding the integration of ultrasound training as part of undergraduate education. A questionnaire was given to first-year medical students after a 2-hour-long session, which was developed to introduce them in the fundamental physics theory and function of ultrasound equipment in the clinical practice. Analysis of the results indicated that students acknowledged that ultrasound training would improve their knowledge of internal medicine (P = 0.027) and of different diagnostic modalities (P = 0.019), and enhance their medical decision making (P = 0.0004). Moreover, students found beneficial the ultrasound education regarding correlating clinical knowledge with basic sciences (P = 0.0004). The study pointed out that the majority of first-year students have the opinion that the integration of ultrasound training in the medical program is valuable in medical education and patient care. However, work is needed to determine how to provide an optimal learning environment and to assess the competency of the training sessions.