Body Mass Index Trajectory in Children With Kawasaki Disease.

Acquired cardiovascular risk is a concern for children with Kawasaki disease, which might influence obesity. Patients with Kawasaki disease in a single-instruction, retrospective cohort exhibited only a minimal increase in BMI z score in the first 6 weeks after diagnosis that resolved at 1 year. Neither corticosteroid treatment nor the presence of coronary artery aneurysms had adverse impacts on the BMI z score trajectory.

Unplanned Readmissions in Pediatric Cardiac Disease: Impacts of Social Determinants of Health.

To investigate relationships between unplanned readmissions and social determinants of health in pediatric cardiac disease. Retrospective cohort study of pediatric (< 18 years) cardiac admissions in the Pediatric Health Information System (1/2019-3/2023). Social determinants included Child Opportunity Index (lower opportunity indicates fewer neighborhood-level resources), insurance, urbanicity, race, and ethnicity.

Prenatal and Perinatal Factors of Life's Essential 8 Cardiovascular Health Trajectories.

Importance: The American Heart Association put forth the Life's Essential 8 construct to assess cardiovascular health (CVH) based on 8 biological and behavioral factors. Few studies have identified prenatal and perinatal factors of CVH trajectories across childhood and adolescence, life stages where disease precursors and health behaviors are established.

Objective: To examine associations of prenatal and perinatal factors with child CVH trajectory.

Implementation strategies for improving the care of familial hypercholesterolaemia from the International Atherosclerosis Society: next steps in implementation science and practice.

Familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) is the most common monogenic condition associated with premature atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Early detection and initiation of cholesterol lowering therapy combined with lifestyle changes improves the prognosis of patients with FH significantly. The International Atherosclerosis Society (IAS) published a new guidance for implementing best practice in the care of FH.

Expert-Level Automated Diagnosis of the Pediatric ECG Using a Deep Neural Network.

Background: Disparate access to expert pediatric cardiologist care and interpretation of electrocardiograms (ECGs) persists worldwide. Artificial intelligence-enhanced ECG (AI-ECG) has shown promise for automated diagnosis of ECGs in adults but has yet to be explored in the pediatric setting.

Objectives: This study sought to determine whether an AI-ECG model can accurately perform automated diagnosis of pediatric ECGs.

Trajectory of Cardiovascular Health Across Childhood and Adolescence.

Importance: The American Heart Association put forth the Life's Essential 8 construct to assess cardiovascular health (CVH) based on 8 behavioral and health factors. Few studies have characterized the natural history of CVH in early life or identified its sociodemographic determinants.

Objective: To characterize CVH trajectories across childhood and adolescence and identify associations with sociodemographic variables.

Trends in Gaps of Care for Patients With Congenital Heart Disease: Implications for Social Determinants of Health and Child Opportunity Index.

Background: Lifelong continuity of care is essential for patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) to maximize health outcomes; unfortunately, gaps in care (GIC) are common. Trends in GIC and of social determinants of health factors contributing to GIC are poorly understood.

Methods And Results: This retrospective cohort study included patients with CHD, aged 0 to 34 years, who underwent surgery between January 2003 and May 2020, followed up at a pediatric subspeciality hospital.

Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance 2023 Cases of SCMR case series.

"Cases of SCMR" is a case series on the SCMR website (https://www.scmr.org) for the purpose of education.

Food Insecurity and Ideal Cardiovascular Health Risk Factors Among US Adolescents.

Background: Food insecurity, a social and economic condition of limited availability of healthy food, is a risk factor for adverse cardiovascular health outcomes among adults; few studies have been conducted in adolescents. This study explores the association between food insecurity and cardiovascular health risk factors among a nationally representative sample of US adolescents, adopting the American Heart Association's Life's Essential 8 metric.

Methods And Results: We analyzed data from 2534 adolescents aged 12 to 19 years from the 2013 to 2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.

Social Determinants of Health Including Child Opportunity Index Leading to Gaps in Care for Patients With Significant Congenital Heart Disease.

Background: Gaps in care (GIC) are common for patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) and can lead to worsening clinical status, unplanned hospitalization, and mortality. Understanding of how social determinants of health (SDOH) contribute to GIC in CHD is incomplete. We hypothesize that SDOH, including Child Opportunity Index (COI), are associated with GIC in patients with significant CHD.

Genetic testing for familial hypercholesterolemia.

Purpose Of Review: Despite familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) being the most common genetic cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD), genetic testing is rarely utilized in the US. This review summarizes what is known about the clinical utility of genetic testing and its role in the diagnosis and screening of FH.

Recent Findings: The presence of an FH-causative variant is associated with a substantially higher risk of CVD, even when low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels are only modestly elevated.

Clinical practice recommendations on lipoprotein apheresis for children with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia: an expert consensus statement from ERKNet and ESPN.

Homozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia is a life-threatening genetic condition, which causes extremely elevated LDL-C levels and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease very early in life. It is vital to start effective lipid-lowering treatment from diagnosis onwards. Even with dietary and current multimodal pharmaceutical lipid-lowering therapies, LDL-C treatment goals cannot be achieved in many children.

Elevation of IL-17 Cytokines Distinguishes Kawasaki Disease From Other Pediatric Inflammatory Disorders.

Objective: Kawasaki disease (KD) is a systemic vasculitis of young children that can lead to development of coronary artery aneurysms. We aimed to identify diagnostic markers to distinguish KD from other pediatric inflammatory diseases.

Methods: We used the proximity extension assay to profile proinflammatory mediators in plasma samples from healthy pediatric controls (n = 30), febrile controls (n = 26), and patients with KD (n = 23), multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C; n = 25), macrophage activation syndrome (n = 13), systemic and nonsystemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (n = 14 and n = 10, respectively), and juvenile dermatomyositis (n = 9).

Contemporary Homozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia in the United States: Insights From the CASCADE FH Registry.

Background Homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH) is a rare, treatment-resistant disorder characterized by early-onset atherosclerotic and aortic valvular cardiovascular disease if left untreated. Contemporary information on HoFH in the United States is lacking, and the extent of underdiagnosis and undertreatment is uncertain. Methods and Results Data were analyzed from 67 children and adults with clinically diagnosed HoFH from the CASCADE (Cascade Screening for Awareness and Detection) FH Registry.

Relationship of Left Ventricular Mass to Lean Body Mass in the Obese Pediatric Population.

Our primary aim was to investigate the relationship between LVM and anthropometric measures including lean body mass (LBM) in obese pediatric subjects compared to normal weight controls. A retrospective chart review identified subjects 2-18 years old who were normotensive and had normal echocardiograms between 1995 and 2020 at Boston Children's Hospital. LVM was calculated with the 5/6 area length rule from 2D echocardiograms.