Organization of Pediatric Echocardiography Laboratories: Impact of Sonographers on Clinical, Academic, and Financial Performance.

Echocardiography has evolved the first-line imaging for diagnosis and management of pediatric and congenital heart disease all over the world. While it recognized as essential component of pediatric cardiac care delivery, organization of pediatric echocardiography services is very heterogeneous across the world, mainly related to significant differences in material and human resources in heterogeneous health care systems. In this paper, we focus on the role of pediatric sonographers, defined as expert technicians in pediatric echocardiography. While in some services sonographers are an essential part of the organizational structure, other laboratories operate only with physicians trained in echocardiography. The impact of sonographers on clinical, academic and financial performance will be discussed. Two organizational models (with and without sonographers) will be compared, and the advantages and disadvantages of each model will be evaluated. Different models of care provision are possible and decisions on organizational models need to be adjusted to the demands and available resources.

Pediatric and Adult Cardiologists' and Respirologists' Referral Practices to Palliative Care.

CONTEXT: Children and adults with advanced cardiac or respiratory disease may benefit from specialized palliative care (SPC), but there has been little SPC research in this area. OBJECTIVES: To explore pediatric cardiologists' and respirologists' (pediatric clinicians) beliefs about and referral practices to SPC and compare these results to adult cardiologists and respirologists (adult clinicians). METHODS: Pediatric and adult clinicians were sent a survey exploring SPC referral practices and beliefs. Responses were summarized with descriptive statistics. Pediatric and adult clinicians' responses were compared using Pearson's chi-square test. RESULTS: The response rate was 56% (989/1759); 9% (87/989) were pediatric clinicians. Pediatric clinicians were more likely than adult clinicians to be female, work in an academic center, and experience fewer patient deaths (P<0.001). Pediatric clinicians reported better access to SPC clinical nurse specialists, spiritual care specialists and bereavement counselors (P<0.001), while adult clinicians reported better access to palliative care units (P<0.001). Pediatric clinicians referred to SPC earlier, while adult clinicians tended to refer after disease directed therapies were stopped (P<0.001). More than half of all clinicians felt patients had negative perceptions of the phrase "palliative care". Although most clinicians were satisfied with SPC quality (73-82%), fewer adult clinicians were satisfied with SPC availability (74 vs. 47%; P<0.001). Fewer pediatric clinicians felt that SPC prioritized oncology patients (13 vs. 53%; P<0.001). CONCLUSION: There are important differences between pediatric and adult clinicians' beliefs about and referral practices to SPC. This may reflect unique features of pediatric diseases, provider characteristics, care philosophies, or service availability.

Understanding the mechanism for branch pulmonary artery stenosis after the arterial switch operation for transposition of the great arteries.

AIMS: The pathophysiology of branch pulmonary artery (PA) stenosis after the arterial switch operation, most commonly on the left, is incompletely understood. This study examines factors associated with left PA (LPA) obstruction. METHODS AND RESULTS: Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging studies performed in patients after arterial switch operation (ASO) were retrospectively analysed. Blood flow was measured in both branch PAs and neo-pulmonary root position in relation to the aorta was expressed as an angle, relative to a line connecting the sternum and the spine. Sixty-six patients were included for analysis. Seventy per cent (n = 46) had balanced pulmonary blood flow, 28% (n = 18) had decreased flow to the left, and 2% (n = 2) had decreased flow to the right lung. LPA area indexed to body surface area (BSA) was smaller than RPA area (62 ± 37 vs. 120 ± 64 mm2/m2, P < 0.0001). Patients with reduced LPA flow were more likely to have required pulmonary arterioplasty at the time of ASO (17 vs. 2%, P = 0.04) and had a larger aortic root diameter (25 ± 7 vs. 22 ± 5 mm2/m2, P = 0.01). Greater rightward orientation of the neo-pulmonary root correlated inversely with LPA cross-sectional area (r = -0.39, P = 0.001) but not with LPA flow. Aortic root diameter correlated inversely with LPA flow (r = -0.43, P = 0.0004) but not with LPA cross-sectional area (P = 0.32). Patients with a rightward neo-pulmonary root and/or a dilated aortic root in the upper quartile range had a smaller LPA area (53 vs. 73 mm2/m2, P = 0.04) and less pulmonary blood flow (41 vs. 46%, P = 0.02) compared with patients without those risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: Neo-pulmonary to neo-aortic geometry as well as post-operative compression of the LPA by an enlarged aorta impact LPA size and perfusion of the left lung.