Intravascular or intracardiac stenosis occurs in various congenital heart diseases or after surgical repair. Although balloon angioplasty is the first option for relieving stenosis, frequently restenosis occurs because of elastic recoil or kingking component. The use of a self-expandable stent and covered stent in congenital heart disease has been reported for selected cases. In general, they have been performed for coarctation of the aorta or aortic aneurysm. We now report successful implantation of a self-expandable stent with a self-expandable covered stent graft in a case of lateral tunnel dehiscence with stenosis after a Fontan operation.

Severely stenotic aortic valves can be treated by percutaneous techniques. However, in rare conditions it could not be possible because of vascular access and valvular passage problems due to small and eccentric orifice. Hybrid approach to balloon aortic valvuloplasty may be considered an alternative to surgery. Here, we present a case of a patient with severe aortic stenosis who has had two failed attempts of percutaneous intervention.

Both surgical and percutaneous closures of atrial septal defects have been successful in reversal of atrial dilatation. We compared the effects of surgical and percutaneous transvenous device closure of atrial septal defect on post-operative changes of P-wave duration, PR segment, and PR interval. Electrocardiographic data were prospectively collected from 30 patients following either surgical (n equal to 16) or percutaneous (n equal to 16) repair of atrial septal defects between 2004 and 2010. A cardiologist blinded to the closure technique performed the electrocardiographic analyses. P-wave duration (98.5 plus or minus 15.4 to 86.4 plus or minus 13.2 milliseconds, p-value less than 0.05) and PR interval (162.9 plus or minus 18.5 to 140.6 plus or minus 15.2 milliseconds, p-value less than 0.05) were reduced after percutaneous transvenous device closure. P-wave duration (104.5 plus or minus 24.7 versus 83.2 plus or minus 13.3 milliseconds, p-value less than 0.05) and PR interval (173.2 plus or minus 38.7 versus 144.3 plus or minus 32.0 milliseconds, p-value less than 0.05) were also reduced after surgical closure. PR segment in the percutaneous group was significantly reduced (63.4 plus or minus 14.5 to 52.1 plus or minus 10.8 milliseconds, p-value less than 0.05), but not in the surgical group (68.6 plus or minus 18.7 versus 61.1 plus or minus 24.7 milliseconds). However, the difference in PR segment changes between the two groups was not significant (−11.3 plus or minus 15.0 versus −7.6 plus or minus 20.5 milliseconds, p-value equal to 0.18). Our analysis demonstrates that the changes between the two groups were not different and that both closure techniques reduce P-wave duration, PR segment, and PR interval within 6 months.

Coarctation of the aorta is a rare congenital anomaly usually accompanying bicuspid aortic valve. Adult patients with aortic coarctation can be managed either with surgery or percutaneously. Here we present a case of percutaneously treated aortic coarctation complicated with infective endocarditis of the aortic valve, thoracic aortitis, and thoracic mycotic aneurysm.

This case describes the prenatal diagnosis and integrated peripartum management of a foetus with 2:1 atrioventricular block and torsade de pointes due to congenital long QT syndrome. The unique issues related to the detection of intrauterine conduction abnormalities and ventricular arrhythmias, along with the immediate postnatal care, have been described as an interesting teaching case with successful outcome.

Purulent bacterial pericarditis is an uncommon infection that manifests during childhood, and in the post-antibiotic era Streptococcus pneumoniae is an unusual cause. We report a case of purulent bacterial pericarditis in a neonate caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 7F. Although cases of bacterial pericarditis caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae as a causative agent have been reported, their combination in a neonate is unique and this is, to our knowledge, the first case of this combination in the newborn period.

We present a case of a 14-year-old boy who presented with symptoms resulting from an anomalous left coronary artery. He underwent corrective surgery to reimplant the left coronary artery into the left coronary sinus. After 3 months, he developed new symptoms. On further investigation, a tight ostial stenosis of the left coronary artery was observed and the patient underwent left internal mammary artery to left anterior descending coronary artery bypass graft. This case showcases the importance of multi-modality imaging in the diagnosis of coronary artery anomalies and potential post-surgical complications.

We present a case of a 24-year-old woman who was diagnosed with quadricuspid aortic valve with ruptured sinus of Valsalva. Quadricuspid aortic valve is a rare congenital cardiac anomaly. The recognition of quadricuspid aortic valve has clinical significance as it causes aortic valve dysfunction, and is often associated with other congenital cardiac abnormalities. We showed the important role of multimodality imaging in diagnosing a quadricuspid aortic valve associated with ruptured sinus of Valsalva.