PubMed HealthSearch

Biomedical subjects

A A Klein

Publications and source records attributed to A A Klein.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

Unique variant of Taussig-Bing heart: double-outlet right ventricle with double ventricular septal defects and double overriding of great arteries.

A cyanotic, tachypneic newborn was diagnosed to have double-outlet right ventricle of the Taussig-Bing type. Cardiac failure did not respond to medical treatment or surgical palliation. Postmortem examination revealed two ventricular septal defects (VSDs), one a malalignment VSD in the membranous septum and adjacent tissue and the other in the anterosuperior part of the muscular septum. The D-malposed aortic root emerged mainly from the right ventricle, with aortic-mitral continuity. The larger posterolateral pulmonary root arose almost entirely from the right ventricle, confluent with the muscular VSD, and unrelated to the mitral valve. Its right ventricular aspect was obstructed by hypertrophied infundibulum. This unique malformation of the heart functioned as a double-outlet right ventricle of Taussig-Bing type. In addition, however, the malformation had elements of tetralogy of Fallot because of the malaligned VSD and hypertrophied conal musculature (although pulmonary flow was excessive), and also of complete transposition of the great arteries because of the arrangements of the two VSDs, which favored aortic flow from right ventricle and pulmonary blood flow from the left ventricle. Thus, a single heart presented similarities to three anatomic and functional entities.

Double Outlet Right Ventricle

Epidemiologic aspects of Kawasaki disease in a Manhattan hospital.

Epidemiologic and clinical features of Kawasaki disease in 106 patients seen between 1980 and 1986 at The New York Hospital in midtown Manhattan were compared with those in large series from the United States, Canada, and Japan. Dissimilarities in our Kawasaki disease experience included ethnic heterogeneity of our patients (50% white, 18% black, 16% Hispanic, and 16% Oriental) and, in comparison with the Japanese experience, an older mean age (3 1/2 vs 1 1/2 years) with fewer children less than 2 years of age (32% vs 50% to 60%). In comparison with the general population of the geographic urban and suburban referral area for our hospital and in comparison with our general pediatric population, Oriental children with Kawasaki disease were overrepresented (16% vs 2%). More families of children with Kawasaki disease were members of the upper and middle class (73%) than were the population seen in general pediatrics (31.7%) at our hospital. Personal interviews with 63 families of children with Kawasaki disease and 63 control families with children paired for ethnic group, sex, and age revealed no epidemiologic differences except for use of rug shampoo within 1 month of onset in 16 episodes in 15 children with Kawasaki disease in 14 families (22% of families) compared with two families of control children (3%) (P less than .001).

Age Factors

Coronary artery involvement in Kawasaki syndrome in Manhattan, New York: risk factors and role of aspirin.

Since January 1980, 110 children having 113 attacks of Kawasaki syndrome were studied. Age at onset was 7 weeks to 12 years (mean 3 6/12 years, median 2 9/12 years); 77% were younger than 5 years of age; the male to female ratio was 1.8; racial distribution was 52% white, 19% black, 14% Hispanic, and 16% Asian. Protocol of management consisted of high-dose aspirin (100 mg/kg/d) until afebrile, and then 81 mg every day until free of coronary aneurysm. Two-dimensional echocardiograms were done weekly during the acute stage, at 2 and 6 months after onset, and yearly if a coronary abnormality was detected. At 1 month, 51 coronary arterial abnormalities were present in 25 patients. Risk factors for a coronary abnormality were duration of fever greater than or equal to 2 weeks, level of platelet count, marked elevation of ESR, and age younger than 5 years. No statistically significant difference in incidence of aneurysms was detected between patients on high-dose aspirin and those on medium-or low-dose aspirin.

Aspirin

Atrial myxoma mimicking a collagen disorder.

A 14-year-old boy had a protracted illness characterized by bilateral tenderness and weakness of the extremities; the illness was considered to be a connective tissue disease similar to polymyositis. Not until nine months later, when the patient had new cardiac murmurs, pulmonary edema, and then a cerebrovascular accident, was the true nature of his illness suspected. The diagnosis of left atrial myxoma with the triad of constitutional, obstructive, and embolic effects was confirmed by echocardiographic studies and cardiac catheterization. The tumor was successfully removed.

Adolescent

Intracardiac conduction intervals in children with congenital heart disease: comparison of His bundle studies in 41 normal children and 307 patients with congenital cardiac defects.

His bundle electrograms were recorded in 348 patients aged 2 months to 24 years following routine diagnostic cardiac catheterization. Among 41 children found to be free of anatomic or hemodynamic abnormality the following mean values were obtained: P-H interval, 93.4 +/- 15.3 msec; P-A time, 21.2 +/- 7.1 msec; A-H interval, 72.2 +/- 15.9 msec; and H-V interval, 39.8 +/- 5.2 msec. The remaining 307 patients were analyzed by diagnosis of congenital heart disease. The mean P-H interval was found to be significantly increased in both ostium primum and secundum atrial septal defect (ASD) with A-H prolongation in primum ASD and P-A prolongation in secundum ASD. The mean H-V interval was significantly prolonged in ostium primum ASD and in patients with severe aortic stenosis, aortic insufficiency. and mitral regurgitation. Grouping of the patients physiologically revealed that patients with moderate-to-severe right ventricular volume overload had P-H prolongation, and patients with severe left ventricular volume or pressure overload had H-V prolongation. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Adolescent

The postpericardiotomy and similar syndromes.

A syndrome of pericardial and often pleural reaction with effusions and with fever occurs in three different settings. It bears the descriptive term of the condition which it follows: the postpericardiotomy syndrome, the postmyocardial infarction syndrome, and the postpericardial trauma syndrome. The manifestations, incidence, theories of etiology, treatment, and possibility of prevention were discussed. The syndrome is probably due to an immunologic response with an associated viral illness, since in a prospective study of children undergoing cardiac surgery in which the pericardium was entered, we found that the development of heart-reactive antibody in high titer and a significant rise in antiviral antibody occurred in patients with clinically evident syndrome.

Adolescent