Longitudinal Follow-Up of Children With HLHS and Association Between Norwood Shunt Type and Long-Term Outcomes: The SVR III Study.

OBJECTIVE: In the SVR trial (Single Ventricle Reconstruction), newborns with hypoplastic left heart syndrome were randomly assigned to receive a modified Blalock-Taussig-Thomas shunt (mBTTS) or a right ventricle-to-pulmonary artery shunt (RVPAS) at Norwood operation. Transplant-free survival was superior in the RVPAS group at 1 year, but no longer differed by treatment group at 6 years; both treatment groups had accumulated important morbidities. In the third follow-up of this cohort (SVRIII [Long-Term Outcomes of Children With Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome and the Impact of Norwood Shunt Type]), we measured longitudinal outcomes and their risk factors through 12 years of age. METHODS: Annual medical history was collected through record review and telephone interviews. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR), echocardiogram, and cycle ergometry cardiopulmonary exercise tests were performed at 10 through 14 years of age among participants with Fontan physiology. Differences in transplant-free survival and complication rates (eg, arrhythmias or protein-losing enteropathy) were identified through 12 years of age. The primary study outcome was right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) by CMR, and primary analyses were according to shunt type received. Multivariable linear and Cox regression models were created for RVEF by CMR and post-Fontan transplant-free survival. RESULTS: Among 549 participants enrolled in SVR, 237 of 313 (76%; 60.7% male) transplant-free survivors (mBTTS, 105 of 147; RVPAS, 129 of 161; both, 3 of 5) participated in SVRIII. RVEF by CMR was similar in the shunt groups (RVPAS, 51±9.6 [n=90], and mBTTS, 52±7.4 [n=75]; P=0.43). The RVPAS and mBTTS groups did not differ in transplant-free survival by 12 years of age (163 of 277 [59%] versus 144 of 267 [54%], respectively; P=0.11), percentage predicted peak Vo2 for age and sex (74±18% [n=91] versus 72±18% [n=84]; P=0.71), or percentage predicted work rate for size and sex (65±20% versus 64±19%; P=0.65). The RVPAS versus mBTTS group had a higher cumulative incidence of protein-losing enteropathy (5% versus 2%; P=0.04) and of catheter interventions (14 versus 10 per 100 patient-years; P=0.01), but had similar rates of other complications. CONCLUSIONS: By 12 years after the Norwood operation, shunt type has minimal association with RVEF, peak Vo2, complication rates, and transplant-free survival. RVEF is preserved among the subgroup of survivors who underwent CMR assessment. Low transplant-free survival, poor exercise performance, and accruing morbidities highlight the need for innovative strategies to improve long-term outcomes in patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. REGISTRATION: URL: https://www. CLINICALTRIALS: gov; Unique identifier: NCT0245531.

Characterization of "ICU-30": A Binary Composite Outcome for Neonates With Critical Congenital Heart Disease.

Background Neonates with heart disease requiring cardiopulmonary bypass surgery are at high risk for mortality and morbidity. As it is rare, short-term mortality is difficult to use as a primary outcome for clinical studies. We proposed "ICU-30" as a binary composite "poor" outcome consisting of: (1) mortality within 30 days, (2) intensive care unit (ICU) admission ≥30 days, or (3) ICU readmission before day 30. To measure the utility of this composite, we assessed its prognostic properties for 6- and 12-month mortality. Methods and Results This was a retrospective single-center cohort study of neonates requiring cardiopulmonary bypass between 2013 and 2020. Mortality among patients with and without the ICU-30 outcome was compared using log-rank tests and Cox regression. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves assessed the ability of the composite to predict 12-month mortality. In 887 neonates, 232 (26.2%) experienced the ICU-30 outcome, with more prolonged ICU stays and readmissions (both ≥9%) than 30-day mortality (4.2%). ICU-30 was associated with higher rates of 6- and 12-month mortality (log-rank P<0.001) and predicted 12-month mortality with area under the receiver operating characteristic of 0.81 (95% CI, 0.77-0.85). In 30-day survivors, both prolonged ICU stay (hazard ratio, 12.3; 95% CI, 6.70-22.7; P<0.001) and ICU readmission (hazard ratio, 2.99; 95% CI, 1.17-7.63; P=0.02) were associated with 12-month mortality. Conclusions ICU-30, a composite outcome of mortality, ICU length of stay, or ICU readmission by 30 days was associated with 6- and 12-month mortality in neonates requiring cardiopulmonary bypass. ICU-30 is captured in routine data collection and appears to be a valid binary patient-centered outcome.

Data integrity of the Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium (PC4) clinical registry.

BACKGROUND: Clinical databases in congenital and paediatric cardiac care provide a foundation for quality improvement, research, policy evaluations and public reporting. Structured audits verifying data integrity allow database users to be confident in these endeavours. We report on the initial audit of the Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium (PC4) clinical registry. Materials and methods Participants reviewed the entire registry to determine key fields for audit, and defined major and minor discrepancies for the audited variables. In-person audits at the eight initial participating centres were conducted during a 12-month period. The data coordinating centre randomly selected intensive care encounters for review at each site. The audit consisted of source data verification and blinded chart abstraction, comparing findings by the auditors with those entered in the database. We also assessed completeness and timeliness of case submission. Quantitative evaluation of completeness, accuracy, and timeliness of case submission is reported. RESULTS: We audited 434 encounters and 29,476 data fields. The aggregate overall accuracy was 99.1%, and the major discrepancy rate was 0.62%. Across hospitals, the overall accuracy ranged from 96.3 to 99.5%, and the major discrepancy rate ranged from 0.3 to 0.9%; seven of the eight hospitals submitted >90% of cases within 1 month of hospital discharge. There was no evidence for selective case omission. CONCLUSIONS: Based on a rigorous audit process, data submitted to the PC4 clinical registry appear complete, accurate, and timely. The collaborative will maintain ongoing efforts to verify the integrity of the data to promote science that advances quality improvement efforts.

Long-term atrial and ventricular epicardial pacemaker lead survival after cardiac operations in pediatric patients with congenital heart disease.

BACKGROUND: Multiple cardiac operations and resultant myocardial scarring have been implicated in the overall reduced performance of epicardial pacing systems in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD). OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study is to evaluate long-term permanent epicardial pacing lead survival in patients with CHD who had epicardial lead placement in association with surgical repair or palliation. METHODS: A retrospective review of patients who had implantation of epicardial pacing systems between January 1984 and June 2010 was conducted. Inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) presence of CHD and (2) cardiac operation(s) concomitant with or before initial permanent epicardial lead implantation. Patients were divided into 2 anatomical groups: single ventricle (SV) and biventricle (Bi-V). RESULTS: Epicardial leads were implanted in 663 patients during the study period. One hundred fifty-five patients (76 SV [49%] and 79 Bi-V [51%]) were included, resulting in 259 leads and 946 lead-years of follow-up. There were 2 deaths and 8 infections attributable to pacemaker placement. Overall atrial lead survival at 1, 2, 5, and 10 years (99%, 93%, 83%, and 72%) was comparable with ventricular lead survival (97%, 90%, 74%, and 60%) (P = .540) and was also similar between SV and Bi-V patients. Cox regression analysis demonstrated that SV palliation and an earlier era of lead implantation (1984-1999) was significantly associated with ventricular, but not atrial, lead malfunction. CONCLUSION: Epicardial leads had acceptable longevity despite cardiac operations for complex CHD, suggesting the long-term reliability of this pacing method.

Supplemental tube feeding does not mitigate weight loss in infants with shunt-dependent single-ventricle physiology.

Infants with shunt-dependent single-ventricle (SV) physiology are at risk for poor weight gain before superior cavopulmonary connection (SCPC). Lower weight-for-age z-score is a risk factor for prolonged length of stay (LOS) after SCPC. We sought to characterize infant growth and feeding and determine the effect of method of feeding on outcomes. Chart review of infants with shunt-dependent SV physiology born between October 2007 and September 2010 was performed. The cohort was divided into three groups based on feeding method at discharge after initial palliation; 53 in the oral feeding (PO) group, 56 in the nasogastric (NG) tube group, and 26 in the gastrostomy tube (GT) group. Birth weight z-score did not differ among groups (p = 0.39), but infants fed by NG or GT were smaller than PO-fed infants at hospital discharge (p = 0.0001), a difference that persisted through SCPC (p < 0.0001). Predictors of need for GT included Norwood procedure (p = 0.008) and longer LOS after initial palliation (p < 0.001). Interstage mortality and age at SCPC did not differ among groups. Risk factors for longer LOS at SCPC included longer LOS and need for supplemental feeds at discharge from initial palliation as well as lower weight at SCPC. Poor growth is common among infants with shunt-dependent SV physiology. Infants who require GT have lower weight-for-age z-scores at hospital discharge and remain smaller at SCPC than those fed PO. Although GT after initial palliation is associated with longer LOS after SCPC, it is not associated with an increase in interstage morbidity or mortality.

A predictive model for neurodevelopmental outcome after the Norwood procedure.

Neurodevelopmental outcomes after the Norwood procedure for single right ventricular lesions are worse than those in the normal population. It would be valuable to identify which patients at the time of Norwood discharge are at greatest risk for neurodevelopmental impairment later in childhood. As such, this study sought to construct and validate a model to predict poor neurodevelopmental outcome using variables readily available to the clinician. Using data from the 14 month neurodevelopmental outcome of the Single-Ventricle Reconstruction (SVR) trial, a classification and regression tree (CART) analysis model was developed to predict severe neurodevelopmental impairment, defined as a Psychomotor Development Index (PDI) score lower than 70 on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-II. The model then was validated using data from subjects enrolled in the Infant Single Ventricle (ISV) trial. The PDI scores were lower than 70 for 138 (44 %) of 313 subjects. Predictors of a PDI lower than 70 were post-Norwood intensive care unit (ICU) stay longer than 46 days, genetic syndrome or other anomalies, birth weight less than 2.7 kg, additional cardiac surgical procedures, and use of five or more medications at hospital discharge. Using these risk factors, the CART model correctly identified 75 % of SVR subjects with a PDI lower than 70. When the CART model was applied to 70 subjects from the ISV trial, the correct classification rate was 67 %. This model of variables from the Norwood hospitalization can help to identify infants at risk for neurodevelopmental impairment. However, given the overall high prevalence of neurodevelopmental impairment and the fact that nearly one third of severely affected children would not have been identified by these risk factors, close surveillance and assessment for early intervention services are warranted for all infants after the Norwood procedure.

Centre variation in cost and outcomes for congenital heart surgery.

Although overall outcomes for children undergoing heart surgery have improved, there is a significant variation in outcomes across hospitals. This review discusses the variation in cost and outcomes across centres performing congenital heart surgery, potential underlying mechanisms, and efforts to reduce variation and improve outcome.

Acute kidney injury and critical cardiac disease.

The field of cardiac intensive care continues to advance in tandem with congenital heart surgery. The survival of patients with critical congenital heart disease is seldom in question. Consequently, the focus has now shifted to that of morbidity reduction and eventual elimination. Acute kidney injury (AKI) after cardiac surgery is associated with adverse outcomes, including prolonged intensive care and hospital stays, diminished quality of life, and increased long-term mortality. Acute kidney injury occurs frequently, complicating 30% to 40% of adult and pediatric cardiac surgeries. Patients who require dialysis are at high risk of mortality, but even minor degrees of postoperative AKI portend a significant increase in mortality and morbidity.

Report from the international society for nomenclature of paediatric and congenital heart disease: creation of a visual encyclopedia illustrating the terms and definitions of the international pediatric and congenital cardiac code.

Tremendous progress has been made in the field of pediatric heart disease over the past 30 years. Although survival after heart surgery in children has improved dramatically, complications still occur, and optimization of outcomes for all patients remains a challenge. To improve outcomes, collaborative efforts are required and ultimately depend on the possibility of using a common language when discussing pediatric and congenital heart disease. Such a universal language has been developed and named the International Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Code (IPCCC). To make the IPCCC more universally understood, efforts are under way to link the IPCCC to pictures and videos. The Archiving Working Group is an organization composed of leaders within the international pediatric cardiac medical community and part of the International Society for Nomenclature of Paediatric and Congenital Heart Disease (www.ipccc.net). Its purpose is to illustrate, with representative images of all types and formats, the pertinent aspects of cardiac diseases that affect neonates, infants, children, and adults with congenital heart disease, using the codes and definitions associated with the IPCCC as the organizational backbone. The Archiving Working Group certifies and links images and videos to the appropriate term and definition in the IPCCC. These images and videos are then displayed in an electronic format on the Internet. The purpose of this publication is to report the recent progress made by the Archiving Working Group in establishing an Internet-based, image encyclopedia that is based on the standards of the IPCCC.

Nomenclature for congenital and paediatric cardiac disease: historical perspectives and The International Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Code.

Clinicians working in the field of congenital and paediatric cardiology have long felt the need for a common diagnostic and therapeutic nomenclature and coding system with which to classify patients of all ages with congenital and acquired cardiac disease. A cohesive and comprehensive system of nomenclature, suitable for setting a global standard for multicentric analysis of outcomes and stratification of risk, has only recently emerged, namely, The International Paediatric and Congenital Cardiac Code. This review, will give an historical perspective on the development of systems of nomenclature in general, and specifically with respect to the diagnosis and treatment of patients with paediatric and congenital cardiac disease. Finally, current and future efforts to merge such systems into the paperless environment of the electronic health or patient record on a global scale are briefly explored. On October 6, 2000, The International Nomenclature Committee for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease was established. In January, 2005, the International Nomenclature Committee was constituted in Canada as The International Society for Nomenclature of Paediatric and Congenital Heart Disease. This International Society now has three working groups. The Nomenclature Working Group developed The International Paediatric and Congenital Cardiac Code and will continue to maintain, expand, update, and preserve this International Code. It will also provide ready access to the International Code for the global paediatric and congenital cardiology and cardiac surgery communities, related disciplines, the healthcare industry, and governmental agencies, both electronically and in published form. The Definitions Working Group will write definitions for the terms in the International Paediatric and Congenital Cardiac Code, building on the previously published definitions from the Nomenclature Working Group. The Archiving Working Group, also known as The Congenital Heart Archiving Research Team, will link images and videos to the International Paediatric and Congenital Cardiac Code. The images and videos will be acquired from cardiac morphologic specimens and imaging modalities such as echocardiography, angiography, computerized axial tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, as well as intraoperative images and videos. Efforts are ongoing to expand the usage of The International Paediatric and Congenital Cardiac Code to other areas of global healthcare. Collaborative efforts are underway involving the leadership of The International Nomenclature Committee for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease and the representatives of the steering group responsible for the creation of the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases, administered by the World Health Organisation. Similar collaborative efforts are underway involving the leadership of The International Nomenclature Committee for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease and the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation, who are the owners of the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine or "SNOMED". The International Paediatric and Congenital Cardiac Code was created by specialists in the field to name and classify paediatric and congenital cardiac disease and its treatment. It is a comprehensive code that can be freely downloaded from the internet (http://www.IPCCC.net) and is already in use worldwide, particularly for international comparisons of outcomes. The goal of this effort is to create strategies for stratification of risk and to improve healthcare for the individual patient. The collaboration with the World Heath Organization, the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation, and the healthcare industry, will lead to further enhancement of the International Code, and to its more universal use.

Databases for assessing the outcomes of the treatment of patients with congenital and paediatric cardiac disease--the perspective of cardiac surgery.

This review includes a brief discussion, from the perspective of cardiac surgeons, of the rationale for creation and maintenance of multi-institutional databases of outcomes of congenital heart surgery, together with a history of the evolution of such databases, a description of the current state of the art, and a discussion of areas for improvement and future expansion of the concept. Five fundamental areas are reviewed: nomenclature, mechanism of data collection and storage, mechanisms for the evaluation and comparison of the complexity of operations and stratification of risk, mechanisms to ensure the completeness and accuracy of the data, and mechanisms for expansion of the current capabilities of databases to include comparison and sharing of data between medical subspecialties. This review briefly describes several European and North American initiatives related to databases for pediatric and congenital cardiac surgery the Congenital Database of The European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, the Congenital Database of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the Pediatric Cardiac Care Consortium, and the Central Cardiac Audit Database in the United Kingdom. Potential means of approaching the ultimate goal of acquisition of long-term follow-up data, and input of this data over the life of the patient, are also considered.

Mechanical properties of native and ex vivo remodeled porcine saphenous veins.

When grafted into an arterial environment in vivo, veins remodel in response to the new mechanical environment, thereby changing their mechanical properties and potentially impacting their patency as bypass grafts. Porcine saphenous veins were subjected for one week to four different ex vivo hemodynamic environments in which pressure and shear stress were varied independently, as well as an environment that mimicked that of an arterial bypass graft. After one week of ex vivo culture, the mechanical properties of intact saphenous veins were evaluated to relate specific aspects of the mechanical environment to vein remodeling and corresponding changes in mechanics. The compliance of all cultured veins tended to be less than that of fresh veins; however, this trend was more due to changes in medial and luminal areas than changes in the intrinsic properties of the vein wall. A combination of medial hypertrophy and eutrophic remodeling leads to significantly smaller (p<0.05) wall stresses measured in all cultured veins except those subjected to bypass graft conditions relative to stresses measured in fresh veins at corresponding pressures. Our results suggest that the mechanical environment effects changes in vessel size, as well as the nature of the remodeling, which contribute to altering vein mechanical properties.

Lessons learned from the data analysis of the second harvest (1998-2001) of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) Congenital Heart Surgery Database.

OBJECTIVE: The analysis of the second harvest of the STS Congenital Heart Surgery Database produced meaningful outcome data and several critical lessons relevant to congenital heart surgery outcomes analysis worldwide. METHODS: This data harvest represents the first STS multi-institutional experience with software utilizing the nomenclature and database requirements adopted by the STS and EACTS (April 2000 Annals of Thoracic Surgery). Members of the STS Congenital Heart Committee analyzed the STS data. RESULTS: This STS harvest includes data from 16 centers (12787 cases, 2881 neonates, 4124 infants). In 2002, the EACTS reported similar outcome data utilizing the same database definitions (41 centers, 12736 cases, 2245 neonates, 4195 infants). Lessons from the analysis include: (1) Death must be clearly defined. (2) The Primary Procedure in a given operation must be documented. (3) Inclusionary and exclusionary criteria for all diagnoses and procedures must be agreed upon. (4) Missing data values remain an issue for the database. (5) Generic terms in the nomenclature lists, that is terms ending in Not Otherwise Specified (NOS), are redundant and decrease the clarity of data analysis. (6) Methodology needs to be developed and implemented to assure and verify data completeness and data accuracy. 'Operative Mortality' and 'Mortality Assigned to this Operation' were defined by the STS and EACTS; these definitions were not utilized uniformly. 'Thirty Day Mortality' was problematic because some centers did not track mortality after hospital discharge. Only 'Mortality Prior to Discharge' was consistently reported. Designation of Primary Procedure for a given operation determines its location for analysis. Until Complexity Scores lead to automated methodology for choosing the Primary Procedure, the surgeon must designate the Primary Procedure. Inclusionary and exclusionary criteria for all diagnoses and procedures have been developed in an effort to define acceptable concomitant diagnoses and procedures for each analysis. Improvements in data completeness can be achieved using a variety of techniques including developing more functional techniques of data entry at individual institutions and software improvements. Future versions of the STS Congenital Database will request that the coding of diagnoses and procedures avoid the terms ending in NOS. CONCLUSIONS: Lessons from this data harvest should improve congenital heart surgery outcome analysis.