This is the first evidence to help guide which children with CHD need a preflight HCT. We suggest all children with an actual or potential R-L shunt should be tested.
A case of a baby born preterm with an antenatal diagnosis of aortic coarctation for which prostin was electively started at birth. The baby was found to be profoundly anaemic with no clear obstetric cause. Features consistent with antenatal intracerebral haemorrhage were noted on cranial ultrasonography in the context of severe coagulopathy, prompting investigations which confirmed fetal-maternal haemorrhage. It transpired that, following aortic and mitral valve replacements, the mother was anticoagulated with warfarin at conception, having misunderstood her cardiologist's advice that: 'you cannot get pregnant whilst on warfarin'. Following conversion to low molecular weight heparin, she suffered a stroke, thus warfarin was restarted, with an international normalised ratio of 3-4.7 during pregnancy. Following transfer to the paediatric intensive care unit, fetal warfarin syndrome was diagnosed. The coagulopathy and anaemia were corrected and aortic coarctation was excluded. The baby returned to the neonatal intensive care unit for ongoing care and was discharged home in good condition around his due date. At the present time, there is no clinically overt neurological deficit.
Total anomalous pulmonary venous drainage (TAPVD) is a rare form of congenital heart disease where all four pulmonary veins drain to the systemic venous circulation. A term infant was found to have low oxygen saturations on the neonatal check and he was admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. An increasing oxygen requirement necessitated invasive ventilation. A blood gas taken from the umbilical venous catheter (UVC) showed a pO(2) of 28.1kPa - a finding that at the time was considered to be erroneous. An x-ray showed the UVC tip was located in the liver. The following day the baby was transferred to a cardiology centre where a diagnosis of unobstructed infracardiac TAPVD was made on echocardiography. In retrospect the unusually oxygenated venous gas was consistent with pulmonary venous return draining directly to the hepatic venous system. This could have provided a vital clue to diagnosis in a situation where an echocardiogram was not available.
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