The measurement of crevicular fluid PGE (CF‐PGE) as an indicator of periodontal disease status was investigated. The association between CF‐PGE levels and the PGE content of the adjacent periodontal tissues was found to be highly significant (P=5.3 × 10−6). The high correlation (r=0.925) between the log CF‐PGE level and the tissue PGE concentration indicates that CF levels can be used to reliably predict tissue levels. The CF‐PGE measurements at each periodontal site were found to be highly reproducible. Samples from adult and juvenile periodontitis patients demonstrated that the mean CF‐PGE levels were correlated with disease severity, as determined by mean attachment loss. The mean CF‐PGE level in juvenile periodontitis patients was almost three‐fold higher than that present in adult periodontitis (144.0 ± 28.0 ng/ml vs 57.5 ± 8.7 ng/ml, mean ± S.E., significant at P = 0.002). The use of CF‐PGE concentrations as an indicator of disease activity (i.e. longitudinal attachment loss) cannot be demonstrated by this cross‐sectional study. However, the CF‐PGE measurement has been demonstrated to be a non‐invasive, sensitive, reproducible, and reliable reflection of tissue levels of PGE2. The association of increasing levels of CF‐PGE with increased severity and aggressiveness of disease is consistent with PGE as an inflammatory mediator of tissue destruction.

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Background: Pulmonary vein stenosis is a progressive disease associated with a high rate of mortality in children. If left untreated, myofibroblastic proliferation can lead to pulmonary vein atresia (PVA). In our experience, transcatheter recanalization has emerged as a favorable interventional option. We sought to determine the acute success rate of recanalization of atretic pulmonary veins and mid-term outcomes of individual veins after recanalization. Methods: We reviewed all patients with PVA at our institution between 2008 and 2020 diagnosed by either catheterization or cardiac computed tomography. All veins with successful recanalization were reviewed and procedural success rate and patency rate were noted. Competing risk analysis was performed to demonstrate outcomes of individual atretic veins longitudinally. Results: Between 2008 and 2020, our institution diagnosed and treated 131 patients with pulmonary vein stenosis. Of these, 61 patients developed atresia of at least one pulmonary vein. In total, there were 97 atretic pulmonary veins within this group. Successful recanalization was accomplished in 47/97 (48.5%) atretic veins. No atretic pulmonary veins were successfully recanalized before 2012. The majority of veins were recanalized between 2017 and 2020—39/56 (70%). The most common intervention after recanalization was drug-eluting stent placement. At 2-year follow-up 42.6% of recanalized veins (20.6% of all atretic veins) remained patent with a median of 4 reinterventions per person. Conclusions: Transcatheter recanalization of PVA can result in successful reestablishment of flow to affected pulmonary veins in many cases. Drug-eluting stent implantation was the most common intervention performed immediately post-recanalization. Vein patency was maintained in 42.6% of patients at 2-year follow-up from recanalization with appropriate surveillance and reintervention. Overall, only a small portion of atretic pulmonary veins underwent successful recanalization with maintained vessel patency at follow-up. Irrespective of successful recanalization, there was no detectable survival difference between the more recently treated PVA cohort and non-PVA cohort.