Coaxial Placement of Balloon-Expandable and Self-Expanding Stents: Impact on Crush Resistance and Luminal Recovery in a Benchtop Model.

During endovascular interventions, coaxial deployment of stents may be required to preserve luminal gain. This study characterized in vitro the effect on crush resistance and postcompression recovery when 316L stainless steel balloon-expandable (BE) and laser-cut nitinol self-expanding (SE) venous stents were deployed coaxially. Various stent configurations were parallel-plate compressed from a fully expanded state to 50% diameter reduction (Criterion, Model 42; MTS, Eden Prairie, Minnesota) in a 37 °C ± 1 water bath. Coaxial deployments of SE stent inside BE stent and BE stent inside SE stent demonstrated higher crush resistances compared with each stent individually or their mathematical summation (analysis of variance P < .0001; pairwise comparison P < .01). The configuration of SE stent inside BE stent showed higher postcompression luminal recovery at 48.7% compared with that of BE stent inside SE stent at 27.5% (P = .0001). Coaxial deployment of SE stent inside BE stent may improve crush resistance and luminal recovery after compression in the appropriate clinical context.

Impact of Postthrombotic Vein Wall Biomechanics on Luminal Flow during Venous Angioplasty and Stent Placement: Computational Modeling Results.

This study characterized the impact of vein wall biomechanics on inflow diameter and luminal flow during venous angioplasty and stent placement, using postthrombotic and healthy biomechanical properties from an ovine venous stenosis and thrombosis model. Finite element analysis demonstrated more pronounced inflow channel narrowing in the postthrombotic vein compared with the healthy control vein during angioplasty and stent placement (relative inflow diameter reduction of 42% versus 13%, P < .0001). Computational fluid dynamics modeling showed increased relative areas of low wall shear rate in the postthrombotic vein compared with the normal vein (0.46 vs 0.24 for shear rate < 50 s-1; 0.13 vs 0.07 for shear rate < 15 s-1; P < .05), with flow stagnation and recirculation. Since inflow narrowing and low wall shear rate are associated with in-stent restenosis and reintervention, these computational results based on experimentally obtained biomechanical values highlight the significance of postthrombotic venous properties in optimizing venous intervention outcomes.

Endovascular Venous Stenosis and Thrombosis Large Animal Model: Angiographic, Histological, and Biomechanical Characterizations.

PURPOSE: To characterize an ovine endovascular radiofrequency (RF) ablation-based venous stenosis and thrombosis model for studying venous biomechanics and response to intervention. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Unilateral short-segment (n = 2) or long-segment (n = 6) iliac vein stenoses were created in 8 adult sheep using an endovenous RF ablation technique. Angiographic assessment was performed at baseline, immediately after venous stenosis creation, and after 2-week (n = 6) or 3-month (n = 2) survival. Stenosed iliac veins and the contralateral healthy controls were harvested for histological and biomechanical assessment. RESULTS: At follow-up, the short-segment RF ablation group showed stable stenosis without occlusion. The long-segment group showed complete venous occlusion/thrombosis with the formation of collateral veins. Stenosed veins showed significant wall thickening (0.28 vs 0.16 mm, P = .0175) and confluent collagen deposition compared with the healthy controls. Subacute nonadherent thrombi were apparent at 2 weeks, which were replaced by fibrous luminal obliteration with channels of recanalization at 3 months. Stenosed veins demonstrated increased longitudinal stiffness (448.5 ± 5.4 vs 314.6 ± 1.5 kPa, P < .0001) and decreased circumferential stiffness (140.8 ± 2.6 vs 246.0 ± 1.6 kPa, P < .0001) compared with the healthy controls. CONCLUSION: Endovenous RF ablation is a reliable technique for creating venous stenosis and thrombosis in a large animal model with histological and biomechanical attributes similar to those seen in humans. This platform can facilitate understanding of venous biomechanics and testing of venous-specific devices and interventions.

Venous Biomechanics of Angioplasty and Stent Placement: Implications of the Poisson Effect.

PURPOSE: To characterize the Poisson effect in response to angioplasty and stent placement in veins and identify potential implications for guiding future venous-specific device design. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In vivo angioplasty and stent placement were performed in 3 adult swine by using an established venous stenosis model. Iron particle endothelium labeling was performed for real-time fluoroscopic tracking of the vessel wall during intervention. A finite-element computational model of a vessel was created with ADINA software (version 9.5) with arterial and venous biomechanical properties obtained from the literature to compare the response to radial expansion. RESULTS: In vivo angioplasty and stent placement in a venous stenosis animal model with iron particle endothelium labeling demonstrated longitudinal foreshortening that correlated with distance from the center of the balloon (R2 = 0.87) as well as adjacent segment narrowing that correlated with the increase in diameter of the treated stenotic segment (R2 = 0.89). Finite-element computational analysis demonstrated increased Poisson effect in veins relative to arteries (linear regression coefficient slope comparison, arterial slope 0.033, R2 = 0.9789; venous slope 0.204, R2 = 0.9975; P < .0001) as a result of greater longitudinal Young modulus in veins compared with arteries. CONCLUSIONS: Clinically observed adjacent segment narrowing during venous angioplasty and stent placement is a result of the Poisson effect, with redistribution of radially applied force to the longitudinal direction. The Poisson effect is increased in veins relative to arteries as a result of unique venous biomechanical properties, which may be relevant to consider in the design of future venous interventional devices.

Few-shot hypercolumn-based mitochondria segmentation in cardiac and outer hair cells in focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) data.

We present a novel AI-based approach to the few-shot automated segmentation of mitochondria in large-scale electron microscopy images. Our framework leverages convolutional features from a pre-trained deep multilayer convolutional neural network, such as VGG-16. We then train a binary gradient boosting classifier on the resulting high-dimensional feature hypercolumns. We extract VGG-16 features from the first four convolutional blocks and apply bilinear upsampling to resize the obtained maps to the input image size. This procedure yields a 2688-dimensional feature hypercolumn for each pixel in a 224 × 224 input image. We then apply L 1-regularized logistic regression for supervised active feature selection to reduce dependencies among the features, to reduce overfitting, as well as to speed-up gradient boosting-based training. During inference we block process 1728 × 2022 large microscopy images. Our experiments show that in such a formulation of transfer learning our processing pipeline is able to achieve high-accuracy results on very challenging datasets containing a large number of irregularly shaped mitochondria in cardiac and outer hair cells. Our proposed few-shot training approach gives competitive performance with the state-of-the-art using far less training data.

Intraluminal thrombus is associated with early rupture of abdominal aortic aneurysm.

BACKGROUND: The implications of intraluminal thrombus (ILT) in abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) are currently unclear. Previous studies have demonstrated that ILT provides a biomechanical advantage by decreasing wall stress, whereas other studies have associated ILT with aortic wall weakening. It is further unclear why some aneurysms rupture at much smaller diameters than others. In this study, we sought to explore the association between ILT and risk of AAA rupture, particularly in small aneurysms. METHODS: Patients were retrospectively identified and categorized by maximum aneurysm diameter and rupture status: small (<60 mm) or large (≥60 mm) and ruptured (rAAA) or nonruptured (non-rAAA). Three-dimensional AAA anatomy was digitally reconstructed from computed tomography angiograms for each patient. Finite element analysis was then performed to calculate peak wall stress (PWS) and mean wall stress (MWS) using the patient's systolic blood pressure. AAA geometric properties, including normalized ILT thickness (mean ILT thickness/maximum diameter) and % volume (100 × ILT volume/total AAA volume), were also quantified. RESULTS: Patients with small rAAAs had PWS of 123 ± 51 kPa, which was significantly lower than that of patients with large rAAAs (242 ± 130 kPa; P = .04), small non-rAAAs (204 ± 60 kPa; P < .01), and large non-rAAAs (270 ± 106 kPa; P < .01). Patients with small rAAAs also had lower MWS (44 ± 14 kPa vs 82 ± 20 kPa; P < .02) compared with patients with large non-rAAAs. ILT % volume and normalized ILT thickness were greater in small rAAAs (68% ± 11%; 0.16 ± 0.04 mm) compared with small non-rAAAs (53% ± 16% [P = .02]; 0.11 ± 0.04 mm [P < .01]) and large non-rAAAs (57% ± 12% [P = .02]; 0.12 ± 0.03 mm [P < .01]). Increased ILT % volume was associated with both decreased MWS and decreased PWS. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that although increased ILT is associated with lower MWS and PWS, it is also associated with aneurysm rupture at smaller diameters and lower stress. Therefore, the protective biomechanical advantage that ILT provides by lowering wall stress seems to be outweighed by weakening of the AAA wall, particularly in patients with small rAAAs. This study suggests that high ILT burden may be a surrogate marker of decreased aortic wall strength and a characteristic of high-risk small aneurysms.

Blood flow patterns underlie developmental heart defects.

Although cardiac malformations at birth are typically associated with genetic anomalies, blood flow dynamics also play a crucial role in heart formation. However, the relationship between blood flow patterns in the early embryo and later cardiovascular malformation has not been determined. We used the chicken embryo model to quantify the extent to which anomalous blood flow patterns predict cardiac defects that resemble those in humans and found that restricting either the inflow to the heart or the outflow led to reproducible abnormalities with a dose-response type relationship between blood flow stimuli and the expression of cardiac phenotypes. Constricting the outflow tract by 10-35% led predominantly to ventricular septal defects, whereas constricting by 35-60% most often led to double outlet right ventricle. Ligation of the vitelline vein caused mostly pharyngeal arch artery malformations. We show that both cardiac inflow reduction and graded outflow constriction strongly influence the development of specific and persistent abnormal cardiac structure and function. Moreover, the hemodynamic-associated cardiac defects recapitulate those caused by genetic disorders. Thus our data demonstrate the importance of investigating embryonic blood flow conditions to understand the root causes of congenital heart disease as a prerequisite to future prevention and treatment.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Congenital heart defects result from genetic anomalies, teratogen exposure, and altered blood flow during embryonic development. We show here a novel "dose-response" type relationship between the level of blood flow alteration and manifestation of specific cardiac phenotypes. We speculate that abnormal blood flow may frequently underlie congenital heart defects.

Animal Models for Heart Valve Research and Development.

Valvular heart disease is the third-most common cause of heart problems in the United States. Malfunction of the valves can be acquired or congenital and each may lead either to stenosis or regurgitation, or even both in some cases. Heart valve disease is a progressive disease, which is irreversible and may be fatal if left untreated. Pharmacological agents cannot currently prevent valvular calcification or help repair damaged valves, as valve tissue is unable to regenerate spontaneously. Thus, heart valve replacement/repair is the only current available treatment. Heart valve research and development is currently focused on two parallel paths; first, research that aims to understand the underlying mechanisms for heart valve disease to emerge with an ultimate goal to devise medical treatment; and second, efforts to develop repair and replacement options for a diseased valve. Studies that focus on developmental malformation, genetic and disease epigenetics usually employ small animal models that are easy to access for in vivo imaging that minimally disturbs their environment during early stages of development. Alternatively, studies that aim to develop novel device for replacement and repair of diseased valves often employ large animals whose heart size and anatomy closely replicate human's. This paper aims to briefly review the current state-of-the-art animal models, and justification to use an animal model for a particular heart valve related project.

Aortic outflow occlusion predicts rupture of abdominal aortic aneurysm.

BACKGROUND: Current threshold recommendations for elective abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair are based solely on maximal AAA diameter. Peak wall stress (PWS) has been demonstrated to be a better predictor than AAA diameter of AAA rupture risk. However, PWS calculations are time-intensive, not widely available, and therefore not yet clinically practical. In addition, PWS analysis does not account for variations in wall strength between patients. We therefore sought to identify surrogate clinical markers of increased PWS and decreased aortic wall strength to better predict AAA rupture risk. METHODS: Patients treated at our institution from 2001 to 2014 for ruptured AAA (rAAA) were retrospectively identified and grouped into patients with small rAAA (maximum diameter <6 cm) or large rAAA (>6 cm). Patients with large (>6 cm) non-rAAA were also identified sequentially from 2009 for comparison. Demographics, vascular risk factors, maximal aortic diameter, and aortic outflow occlusion (AOO) were recorded. AOO was defined as complete occlusion of the common, internal, or external iliac artery. Computational fluid dynamics and finite element analysis simulations were performed to calculate wall stress distributions and to extract PWS. RESULTS: We identified 61 patients with rAAA, of which 15 ruptured with AAA diameter <60 mm (small rAAA group). Patients with small rAAAs were more likely to have peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) than were patients in the large non-rAAA group. Patients with small rAAAs were also more likely to have AOO compared with non-rAAAs >60 mm (27% vs 8%; P = .047). Among all patients with rAAAs, those with AOO ruptured at smaller mean AAA diameters than in patients without AOO (62.1 ± 11.8 mm vs 72.5 ± 16.4 mm; P = .024). PWS calculations of a representative small rAAA and a large non-rAAA showed a substantial increase in PWS with AOO. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate that AOO, PAD, and COPD in AAA are associated with rAAAs at smaller diameters. AOO appears to increase PWS, whereas COPD and PAD may be surrogate markers of decreased aortic wall strength. We therefore recommend consideration of early, elective AAA repair in patients with AOO, PAD, or COPD to minimize risk of early rupture.

A Geodesics-Based Surface Parameterization to Assess Aneurysm Progression.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) intervention and surveillance is currently based on maximum transverse diameter, even though it is recognized that this might not be the best strategy. About 10% of patients with small AAA transverse diameters, for whom intervention is not considered, still rupture; while patients with large AAA transverse diameters, for whom intervention would have been recommended, have stable aneurysms that do not rupture. While maximum transverse diameter is easy to measure and track in clinical practice, one of its main drawbacks is that it does not represent the whole AAA and rupture seldom occurs in the region of maximum transverse diameter. By following maximum transverse diameter alone clinicians are missing information on the shape change dynamics of the AAA, and clues that could lead to better patient care. We propose here a method to register AAA surfaces that were obtained from the same patient at different time points. Our registration method could be used to track the local changes of the patient-specific AAA. To achieve registration, our procedure uses a consistent parameterization of the AAA surfaces followed by strain relaxation. The main assumption of our procedure is that growth of the AAA occurs in such a way that surface strains are smoothly distributed, while regions of small and large surface growth can be differentiated. The proposed methodology has the potential to unravel different patterns of AAA growth that could be used to stratify patient risks.

3D imaging of the early embryonic chicken heart with focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy.

Early embryonic heart development is a period of dynamic growth and remodeling, with rapid changes occurring at the tissue, cell, and subcellular levels. A detailed understanding of the events that establish the components of the heart wall has been hampered by a lack of methodologies for three-dimensional (3D), high-resolution imaging. Focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) is a novel technology for imaging 3D tissue volumes at the subcellular level. FIB-SEM alternates between imaging the block face with a scanning electron beam and milling away thin sections of tissue with a FIB, allowing for collection and analysis of 3D data. FIB-SEM was used to image the three layers of the day 4 chicken embryo heart: myocardium, cardiac jelly, and endocardium. Individual images obtained with FIB-SEM were comparable in quality and resolution to those obtained with transmission electron microscopy. Up to 1,100 serial images were obtained in 4 nm increments at 4.88 nm resolution, and image stacks were aligned to create volumes 800-1,500 µm3 in size. Segmentation of organelles revealed their organization and distinct volume fractions between cardiac wall layers. We conclude that FIB-SEM is a powerful modality for 3D subcellular imaging of the embryonic heart wall.

Alterations in pulse wave propagation reflect the degree of outflow tract banding in HH18 chicken embryos.

Hemodynamic conditions play a critical role in embryonic cardiovascular development, and altered blood flow leads to congenital heart defects. Chicken embryos are frequently used as models of cardiac development, with abnormal blood flow achieved through surgical interventions such as outflow tract (OFT) banding, in which a suture is tightened around the heart OFT to restrict blood flow. Banding in embryos increases blood pressure and alters blood flow dynamics, leading to cardiac malformations similar to those seen in human congenital heart disease. In studying these hemodynamic changes, synchronization of data to the cardiac cycle is challenging, and alterations in the timing of cardiovascular events after interventions are frequently lost. To overcome this difficulty, we used ECG signals from chicken embryos (Hamburger-Hamilton stage 18, ∼3 days of incubation) to synchronize blood pressure measurements and optical coherence tomography images. Our results revealed that, after 2 h of banding, blood pressure and pulse wave propagation strongly depend on band tightness. In particular, while pulse transit time in the heart OFT of control embryos is ∼10% of the cardiac cycle, after banding (35% to 50% band tightness) it becomes negligible, indicating a faster OFT pulse wave velocity. Pulse wave propagation in the circulation is likewise affected; however, pulse transit time between the ventricle and dorsal aorta (at the level of the heart) is unchanged, suggesting an overall preservation of cardiovascular function. Changes in cardiac pressure wave propagation are likely contributing to the extent of cardiac malformations observed in banded hearts.

Energetics of Cardiac Blood Flow in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy through Individualized Computational Modeling.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a congenital heart disease characterized by thickening of the heart's left ventricle (LV) wall that can lead to cardiac dysfunction and heart failure. Ventricular wall thickening affects the motion of cardiac walls and blood flow within the heart. Because abnormal cardiac blood flow in turn could lead to detrimental remodeling of heart walls, aberrant ventricular flow patterns could exacerbate HCM progression. How blood flow patterns are affected by hypertrophy and inter-patient variability is not known. To address this gap in knowledge, we present here strategies to generate personalized computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models of the heart LV from patient cardiac magnetic resonance (cMR) images. We performed simulations of CFD LV models from three cases (one normal, two HCM). CFD computations solved for blood flow velocities, from which flow patterns and the energetics of flow within the LV were quantified. We found that, compared to a normal heart, HCM hearts exhibit anomalous flow patterns and a mismatch in the timing of energy transfer from the LV wall to blood flow, as well as changes in kinetic energy flow patterns. While our results are preliminary, our presented methodology holds promise for in-depth analysis of HCM patient hemodynamics in clinical practice.

TAD Evolutionary and functional characterization reveals diversity in mammalian TAD boundary properties and function.

Topological associating domains (TADs) are self-interacting genomic units crucial for shaping gene regulation patterns. Despite their importance, the extent of their evolutionary conservation and its functional implications remain largely unknown. In this study, we generate Hi-C and ChIP-seq data and compare TAD organization across four primate and four rodent species, and characterize the genetic and epigenetic properties of TAD boundaries in correspondence to their evolutionary conservation. We find that only 14% of all human TAD boundaries are shared among all eight species (ultraconserved), while 15% are human-specific. Ultraconserved TAD boundaries have stronger insulation strength, CTCF binding, and enrichment of older retrotransposons, compared to species-specific boundaries. CRISPR-Cas9 knockouts of two ultraconserved boundaries in mouse models leads to tissue-specific gene expression changes and morphological phenotypes. Deletion of a human-specific boundary near the autism-related AUTS2 gene results in upregulation of this gene in neurons. Overall, our study provides pertinent TAD boundary evolutionary conservation annotations, and showcase the functional importance of TAD evolution.

TAD evolutionary and functional characterization reveals diversity in mammalian TAD boundary properties and function.

Topological associating domains (TADs) are self-interacting genomic units crucial for shaping gene regulation patterns. Despite their importance, the extent of their evolutionary conservation and its functional implications remain largely unknown. In this study, we generate Hi-C and ChIP-seq data and compare TAD organization across four primate and four rodent species and characterize the genetic and epigenetic properties of TAD boundaries in correspondence to their evolutionary conservation. We find 14% of all human TAD boundaries to be shared among all eight species (ultraconserved), while 15% are human-specific. Ultraconserved TAD boundaries have stronger insulation strength, CTCF binding, and enrichment of older retrotransposons compared to species-specific boundaries. CRISPR-Cas9 knockouts of an ultraconserved boundary in a mouse model lead to tissue-specific gene expression changes and morphological phenotypes. Deletion of a human-specific boundary near the autism-related AUTS2 gene results in the upregulation of this gene in neurons. Overall, our study provides pertinent TAD boundary evolutionary conservation annotations and showcases the functional importance of TAD evolution.

Effect of Blood Flow on Cardiac Morphogenesis and Formation of Congenital Heart Defects.

Congenital heart disease (CHD) affects about 1 in 100 newborns and its causes are multifactorial. In the embryo, blood flow within the heart and vasculature is essential for proper heart development, with abnormal blood flow leading to CHD. Here, we discuss how blood flow (hemodynamics) affects heart development from embryonic to fetal stages, and how abnormal blood flow solely can lead to CHD. We emphasize studies performed using avian models of heart development, because those models allow for hemodynamic interventions, in vivo imaging, and follow up, while they closely recapitulate heart defects observed in humans. We conclude with recommendations on investigations that must be performed to bridge the gaps in understanding how blood flow alone, or together with other factors, contributes to CHD.

Dipeptidyl peptidase IV inhibition delays developmental programming of obesity and metabolic disease in male offspring of obese mothers.

Maternal obesity programs the offspring to metabolic diseases later in life; however, the mechanisms of programming are yet unclear, and no strategies exist for addressing its detrimental transgenerational effects. Obesity has been linked to dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPPIV), an adipokine, and treatment of obese individuals with DPPIV inhibitors has been reported to prevent weight gain and improve metabolism. We hypothesized that DPPIV plays a role in maternal obesity-mediated programming. We measured plasma DPPIV activity in human maternal and cord blood samples from normal-weight and obese mothers at term. We found that maternal obesity increases maternal and cord blood plasma DPPIV activity but only in male offspring. Using two non-human primate models of maternal obesity, we confirmed the activation of DPPIV in the offspring of obese mothers. We then created a mouse model of maternal high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity, and found an early-life increase in plasma DPPIV activity in male offspring. Activation of DPPIV preceded the progression of obesity, glucose intolerance and insulin resistance in male offspring of HFD-fed mothers. We then administered sitagliptin, DPPIV inhibitor, to regular diet (RD)- and HFD-fed mothers, starting a week prior to breeding and continuing throughout pregnancy and lactation. We found that sitagliptin treatment of HFD-fed mothers delayed the progression of obesity and metabolic diseases in male offspring and had no effects on females. Our findings reveal that maternal obesity dysregulates plasma DPPIV activity in males and provide evidence that maternal inhibition of DPPIV has potential for addressing the transgenerational effects of maternal obesity.

Prevention of vascular graft occlusion and thrombus-associated thrombin generation by inhibition of factor XI.

The protease thrombin is required for normal hemostasis and pathologic thrombogenesis. Since the mechanism of coagulation factor XI (FXI)-dependent thrombus growth remains unclear, we investigated the contribution of FXI to thrombus formation in a primate thrombosis model. Pretreatment of baboons with a novel anti-human FXI monoclonal antibody (aXIMab; 2 mg/kg) inhibited plasma FXI by at least 99% for 10 days, and suppressed thrombin-antithrombin (TAT) complex and beta-thromboglobulin (betaTG) formation measured immediately downstream from thrombi forming within collagen-coated vascular grafts. FXI inhibition with aXIMab limited platelet and fibrin deposition in 4-mm diameter grafts without an apparent increase in D-dimer release from thrombi, and prevented the occlusion of 2-mm diameter grafts without affecting template bleeding times. In comparison, pretreatment with aspirin (32 mg/kg) prolonged bleeding times but failed to prevent graft occlusion, supporting the concept that FXI blockade may offer therapeutic advantages over other antithrombotic agents in terms of bleeding complications. In whole blood, aXIMab prevented fibrin formation in a collagen-coated flow chamber, independent of factor XII and factor VII. These data suggest that endogenous FXI contributes to arterial thrombus propagation through a striking amplification of thrombin generation at the thrombus luminal surface.

Quantifying blood flow and wall shear stresses in the outflow tract of chick embryonic hearts.

Wall shear stresses (WSS) exerted by blood flow on cardiac tissues modulate growth and development of the heart. To study the role of hemodynamic conditions on cardiac morphogenesis, here, we present a methodology that combines imaging and finite element modeling to quantify the in vivo blood flow dynamics and WSS in the cardiac outflow tract (OFT) of early chicken embryos (day 3 out of 21-day incubation period). We found a distinct blood flow field and heterogeneous distribution of WSS in the chicken embryonic heart OFT, which have physiological implications for OFT morphogenesis.

Fetal Blood Flow and Genetic Mutations in Conotruncal Congenital Heart Disease.

In congenital heart disease, the presence of structural defects affects blood flow in the heart and circulation. However, because the fetal circulation bypasses the lungs, fetuses with cyanotic heart defects can survive in utero but need prompt intervention to survive after birth. Tetralogy of Fallot and persistent truncus arteriosus are two of the most significant conotruncal heart defects. In both defects, blood access to the lungs is restricted or non-existent, and babies with these critical conditions need intervention right after birth. While there are known genetic mutations that lead to these critical heart defects, early perturbations in blood flow can independently lead to critical heart defects. In this paper, we start by comparing the fetal circulation with the neonatal and adult circulation, and reviewing how altered fetal blood flow can be used as a diagnostic tool to plan interventions. We then look at known factors that lead to tetralogy of Fallot and persistent truncus arteriosus: namely early perturbations in blood flow and mutations within VEGF-related pathways. The interplay between physical and genetic factors means that any one alteration can cause significant disruptions during development and underscore our need to better understand the effects of both blood flow and flow-responsive genes.