Overall, 5 patients underwent heart transplantation (right ventricular to pulmonary artery conduit 4 vs modified Blalock-Taussig shunt 1, P = .1) before Fontan. There was no difference in age or weight at Fontan, bypass time, intensive care unit or hospital length

of stay, postoperative pleural effusions, or need for reoperation between groups.

Conclusions: Interim learn more analyses continue to suggest there is no survival advantage of one shunt type compared with the other. Longer-term follow-up of a randomized patient population remains of utmost importance. (J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2010; 140: 537-44)”
“The specific activity of brain glutamine synthetase (GS) is lowered in several neurodegenerative diseases that involve iron-mediated oxidative stress. The present selleck compound study has investigated whether H(2)O(2) directly inactivates GS or whether GS is primarily inactivated by hydroxyl radicals that are produced by the Fenton reaction when H(2)O(2) reacts with ferrous iron. Exposure of purified sheep

brain GS to supraphysiological concentrations of H(2)O(2) (1 mM for 30 min) reduced its specific activity by only 41%, indicating that the enzyme is fairly resistant to oxidation by peroxide. However, the enzyme was completely inactivated when co-incubated with H(2)O(2), iron and ascorbate, indicating a vulnerability to oxidation by conditions that favour the production of hydroxyl radicals. Similarly, specific GS activity in cultured mouse astrocytes was resistant to supraphysiological concentrations of H(2)O(2), with approximately 37% of activity remaining 3 h after incubation with 1 mM H(2)O(2). This inactivation was prevented by the iron chelators 2,2′-dipyridyl or 1,10-phenanthroline,

but not Immune system by their non-chelating analogues. These data suggest that inactivation of astrocytic GS is caused by H(2)O(2) indirectly via the Fenton reaction as it required the presence of chelatable intracellular iron. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Objective: To determine the effect of reintervention for coarctation after stage 1 reconstruction for hypoplastic left heart syndrome and variants on survival, suitability for Fontan, and morbidity at Fontan.

Methods: A retrospective review of echocardiograms, catheterizations, hospital records of patients who underwent stage 1 reconstruction from January 2002 to May 2005, with a cross-sectional analysis of hospital survivors, was performed. Kaplan-Meier curves were derived for patients alive more than 30 days after stage 1 reconstruction.

Results: A total of 176 patients underwent stage 1 reconstruction. Forty-three patients (23%) underwent balloon angioplasty (n = 43) or surgical intervention (n = 4) for re-coarctation. Median time to intervention was 123 (1-316) days. Seven of 43 patients (16%) underwent more than 1 balloon angioplasty.