Kawasaki disease (KD) is a systemic inflammatory condition primarily affecting young children. We present an adolescent male with two episodes of complete KD between the age of 2 and 14 years. At age 14, he presented with findings suggestive of a retropharyngeal abscess. This was later determined to be a recurrence of KD, diagnosed after the development of coronary artery aneurysms. Our case reinforces the role of maintaining a high index of suspicion for KD, both in patients with prior KD episodes and in those with persistent fever who do not fulfill the diagnostic criteria for typical KD. This is particularly important for patients presenting with atypical symptoms not commonly associated with KD, such as inflammation of the retropharyngeal and parapharyngeal spaces.
Using current recommended methods, AoD will be missed in overweight and obese patients and overdiagnosed in underweight patients. For children of normal weight, a Z-score based on BSA may be reliable. As obesity rates increase, weight-independent Z-scores must be developed.
Background
Fontan‐associated liver disease (FALD) uniformly affects patients with long‐term Fontan physiology. The effect of isolated heart transplant (HT) on the course of FALD post‐HT is not well understood.
Methods
We evaluated serial liver imaging pre‐ and post‐HT to assess liver changes over time in a single‐center retrospective analysis of Fontan HT recipients who had pre‐ and ≥1‐year post‐HT liver imaging. Available patient demographic and clinical data were reviewed, including available liver biopsy results.
Results
Serial liver imaging was available in 19 patients with a median age at HT of 12 years (range 3–23), the median age from Fontan to HT of 5.7 years (range 0.8–16), and the median time from imaging to follow up of 27 months (range 12–136 months). Pre‐HT liver imaging was classified as follows: normal (n=1), congested (n=9), fibrotic (n=7), and cirrhotic (n=2). The majority of transplanted patients (15/19) had improvement in their post‐HT liver imaging, including 13 patients with initially abnormal imaging pre‐HT having normal liver imaging at follow‐up. One patient had persistent cirrhosis at 26‐month follow‐up, one patient had unchanged fibrosis at 18‐month follow‐up, and one patient progressed from fibrosis pre‐HT to cirrhosis post‐HT at 136 months. No patients had overt isolated liver failure during pre‐ or post‐HT follow‐up. Liver biopsy did not consistently correlate with imaging findings.
Conclusions
Post‐HT liver imaging evaluation in Fontan patients reveals heterogeneous liver outcomes. These results not only provide evidence for the improvement of FALD post‐HT but also show the need for serial liver imaging follow‐up post‐HT.
Myocardial dysfunction and heart failure are common in pediatric patients with congenital and acquired heart disease. Alkaline phosphatase (AP) has been suggested as a biomarker for myocardial dysfunction after Fontan operation. We hypothesized that pediatric patients with myocardial dysfunction requiring orthotopic heart transplant (OHT) have diminished AP compared to normal. A retrospective review was performed in all patients who underwent OHT at Arkansas Children's Hospital between January 2007 and October 2012. Anatomic diagnoses, therapeutic interventions, and ventricular ejection fraction (EF) were recorded. Z scores for AP levels in the study group were determined by comparing the observed AP levels to age- and gender-matched normative values. T tests were performed to compare the mean AP Z score prior to and after OHT. p values <0.05 were considered statistically significant. During the study period, 124 OHTs were performed. Complete study data were available and analyzed from 71/124 patients (mean age at OHT 3.9 years; 51% female). The mean AP Z score was significantly lower in the study group prior to OHT compared to normal (p < 0.0001). The initiation of ACE inhibitor therapy prior to OHT was associated with a significant increase in AP and the ventricular EF (p < 0.001 for both). Treatment with milrinone was associated with an increase in EF. AP is significantly lower in pediatric patients with myocardial dysfunction prior to OHT compared to normal. AP increases significantly after the initiation of therapies to improve myocardial function. Diminished AP is an indicator of myocardial dysfunction in pediatric patients.
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