Outcome of patients on heart transplant list treated with a continuous-flow left ventricular assist device: Insights from the TRans-Atlantic registry on VAd and TrAnsplant (TRAViATA).

BACKGROUND: Geographic variations in management and outcomes of individuals supported by continuous-flow left ventricular assist devices (CF-LVAD) between the United States (US) and Europe (EU) is largely unknown. METHODS: We created a retrospective, multinational registry of 524 patients who received a CF-LVAD (either HVAD or Heartmate II) between January 2008 and April 2017. Follow up spanned from date of CF-LVAD implant to post-HTx period with a median follow up of 44.8 months. RESULTS: The cohort included 299 (57.1%) EU and 225 (42.9%) US patients. Although the US cohort was significantly older with a higher prevalence of comorbidities, survival was similar between the cohorts (US 63.1%, EU 68.4% at 5 years, unadjusted log-rank test p = 0.43).Multivariate analyses suggested that older age, higher body mass index, elevated creatinine, use of temporary mechanical circulatory support prior CF-LVAD, and implantation of HVAD were associated with increased mortality. Among CF-LVAD patients undergoing HTx, the median time on CF-LVAD support was shorter in the US, meanwhile US donors were younger. Finally, the pattern of adverse events (stroke, gastrointestinal bleedings, late right ventricular failure, and driveline infection) during support differed significantly between US and EU. CONCLUSIONS: Although waitlisted patients in the US on CF-LVAD have higher risk comorbid conditions, the overall outcome is similar in US and EU. Geographic variations with regards to donor characteristics, duration of CF-LVAD support prior to transplant, and adverse events on support can explain the disparity in the utilization of mechanical bridge to transplant strategy between US and EU.

Neurocognitive Development After Pediatric Heart Surgery.

OBJECTIVES: Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) often have neurocognitive deficits, sometimes with a detrimental impact on daily and school functioning. These deficits may increase through childhood. In this study, we investigated whether children with CHD, who underwent heart surgery as infants, show more neurocognitive deficits, especially in the executive functions, as they get older, compared with healthy controls. METHODS: In this longitudinal follow-up study, 107 children with CHD and 77 healthy control children underwent extensive neurocognitive testing at 4 years of age. Ninety-three percent of the children (100 patients with CHDs and 72 controls) underwent a second neurocognitive testing 3 years later. Intelligence, visual-motor integration (VMI), alertness, motor coordination, executive functions, and psychosocial functioning were assessed. RESULTS: IQ scores were consistently lower in the CHD group (P < .001); however, the difference of 11.7 IQ points between both groups at follow-up 1 decreased to 7 IQ points at follow-up 2 (P = .003). Inhibition reaction time had improved in both study groups at follow-up 2 (P < .001) and did not differ between both groups from follow-up 1 to follow-up 2 (P = .849). Deficits in VMI, alertness, motor coordination, and psychosocial functioning also did not worsen for patients with CHDs at follow-up 2, compared with healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS: Children with CHD, who underwent heart surgery as infants, do not show an increase of neurocognitive deficits between the ages of 4 and 7 years, compared with healthy controls. Patients with CHDs keep deficits in intelligence, VMI, and psychosocial functioning, but seem to partially grow out of their deficits.

Neurocognition after paediatric heart surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

UNLABELLED: Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) often experience difficulties in academic and daily functioning, which have been associated with intelligence and neurocognitive skills, including executive functions (EFs), attention and memory. We report the neurocognitive data of children with CHD who were included in the Leuven glucose control trial (LGC trial). Through a systematic review and meta-analysis, we aimed to find which neurocognitive functions are most consistently and prominently affected. 365 children with CHD and 216 healthy control children underwent extensive neurocognitive testing in the LGC trial. A comprehensive search of electronic databases PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane was conducted for studies measuring intelligence, EFs, attention and memory in children who underwent heart surgery for CHD. Standardised mean differences (SMDs) between the CHD group and a healthy control group were calculated for these neurocognitive functions. LGC trial data were included in the meta-analysis. Twelve studies with a healthy control group were included in the meta-analysis, involving 647 patients with CHD and 633 controls. The CHD group (median age 7.35 years at testing) had worse scores than healthy control children, for all investigated neurocognitive functions. A medium SMD was found for intelligence (SMD=-0.53 (95% CI -0.68 to -0.38), p<0.00001). Alertness, an attentional function, was also consistently poorer in the CHD group. Memory was less affected, while EF had a medium SMD with large heterogeneity. Children with CHD risk displayed lower performance on intelligence and alertness assessment, which may contribute to difficulties in daily life and school. Heterogeneity in neurocognitive assessment and small sizes in most studies limit the interpretation. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier NCT00214916.

Neurocognitive development of children 4 years after critical illness and treatment with tight glucose control: a randomized controlled trial.

CONTEXT: A large randomized controlled trial revealed that tight glucose control (TGC) to age-adjusted normoglycemia (50-80 mg/dL at age <1 year and 70-100 mg/dL at age 1-16 years) reduced intensive care morbidity and mortality compared with usual care (UC), but increased hypoglycemia (≤40 mg/dL) (25% vs 1%). OBJECTIVE: As both hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia may adversely affect the developing brain, long-term follow-up was required to exclude harm and validate short-term benefits of TGC. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS: A prospective, randomized controlled trial of 700 patients aged 16 years or younger who were admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (ICU) of the University Hospitals in Leuven, Belgium, between October 2004 and December 2007. Follow-up was scheduled after 3 years with infants assessed at 4 years old between August 2008 and January 2012. Assessment was performed blinded for treatment allocation, in-hospital (83%) or at home/school (17%). For comparison, 216 healthy siblings and unrelated children were tested. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Intelligence (full-scale intelligence quotient [IQ]), as assessed with age-adjusted tests (Wechsler IQ scales). Further neurodevelopmental testing encompassed tests for visual-motor integration (Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration); attention, motor coordination, and executive functions (Amsterdam Neuropsychological Tasks); memory (Children's Memory Scale); and behavior (Child Behavior Checklist). RESULTS: Sixteen percent of patients declined participation or could not be reached (n = 113), resulting in 569 patients being alive and testable at follow-up. At a median (interquartile range [IQR]) of 3.9 (3.8-4.1) years after randomization, TGC in the ICU did not affect full-scale IQ score (median [IQR], 88.0 [74.0-100.0] vs 88.5 [74.3-99.0] for UC; P = .73) and had not increased incidence of poor outcomes (death or severe disability precluding neurocognitive testing: 19% [68/349] vs 18% [63/351] with UC; risk-adjusted odds ratio, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.60-1.46; P = .72). Other scores for intelligence, visual-motor integration, and memory also did not differ between groups. Tight glucose control improved motor coordination (9% [95% CI, 0%-18%] to 20% [95% CI, 5%-35%] better, all P ≤ .03) and cognitive flexibility (19% [95% CI, 5%-33%] better, P = .02). Brief hypoglycemia evoked by TGC was not associated with worse neurocognitive outcome. CONCLUSION: At follow-up, children who had been treated with TGC during an ICU admission did not have a worse measure of intelligence than those who had received UC. TRIAL REGISTRATION: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier NCT00214916.

Are children with ADHD predominantly inattentive and combined subtypes different in terms of aspects of everyday attention?

The validity of the DSM-IV subtypes is a recurring diagnostic debate in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Laboratory measures, such as the test of everyday attention for children (TEA-Ch) can help us address this question. TEA-Ch is a test battery covering different aspects of everyday attention relating to selective and sustained attention and attentional control. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether this instrument can differentiate between combined (ADHD-C) and inattentive subtype (ADHD-I) of ADHD. Subjects were recruited from a multidisciplinary ADHD outpatient unit and tested free of medication. Sixty-four children with a diagnosis of ADHD were included (38 with ADHD-C; 26 with ADHD-I). The control group was 76 children recruited from primary and secondary schools. Children with ADHD performed worse than controls on 6 out of 9 TEA-Ch subtests. However a regression analysis revealed that TEA-Ch subtests made only a marginal contribution to the correct classification of ADHD, once the effects of IQ and age are controlled. Confirmatory factor analysis in our ADHD group demonstrated that the three factor structure achieved a poor fit. More detailed analysis suggested that inferior performance on the tasks designed to test vigilance was not the result of deficient-sustained attention. ADHD-C and ADHD-I showed very few differences across tasks. In conclusion, our results provided not much support for the value of the ADHD-C and ADHD-I distinction in predicting difficulties in everyday attention.

EEG components of spontaneous trait inferences.

Can event-related electro-encephalogram (EEG) responses provide support for the occurrence of spontaneous trait inferences (STI)? Participants read sentences describing the behavior of a target person from which a strong trait could be inferred. The last word of each sentence determined the consistency with the trait induced during an introductory paragraph. In comparison with sentences that were consistent with the implied trait, when the sentences were inconsistent, an event-related P300 waveform was observed at parietal scalp regions (Pz). This dependency on behavioral consistency indicates that trait inferences were made spontaneously. Memory measures taken after the presentation of the stimulus material involved sentence completion and trait-cued recall, and also supported the occurrence of spontaneously inferred traits associated with the actor. Interestingly, increased memory for consistent relative to inconsistent behaviors at the trait-cued recall task was significantly correlated with the P300, which supports this latter measure as a valid neural correlate of spontaneous trait inferences.