The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge influence in almost all areas of life, affecting societies, economics, and health care systems worldwide. The paediatric cardiology community is no exception. As the challenging battle with COVID-19 continues, professionals from the Association for the European Paediatric and Congenital Cardiology receive many questions regarding COVID-19 in a Paediatric and Congenital Cardiology setting. The aim of this paper is to present the AEPC position on frequently asked questions based on the most recent scientific data, as well as to frame a discussion on how to take care of our patients during this unprecedented crisis. As the times are changing quickly and information regarding COVID-19 is very dynamic, continuous collection of evidence will help guide constructive decision-making.

The recommendations of the Association for European Paediatric and Congenital Cardiology for basic training in paediatric and congenital cardiology required to be recognised as a paediatric cardiologist by the Association for European Paediatric and Congenital Cardiology are described below. Those wishing to achieve more advanced training in particular areas of paediatric cardiology should consult the training recommendations of the different Association for European Paediatric and Congenital Cardiology Working Groups available on the Association for European Paediatric and Congenital Cardiology website (www.aepc.org) and the respective publications 1–6. The development of training requirements is the responsibility of the Educational Committee and the Association for European Paediatric and Congenital Cardiology Council in collaboration with the Working Groups of the Association for European Paediatric and Congenital Cardiology. Trainees should be exposed to all aspects of general paediatric and congenital cardiology from fetal life to adolescence and adulthood. Centres performing generalised and specialised work in paediatric and congenital cardiology should be committed to deliver postgraduate training. At each training institute, trainers should be appointed to supervise and act as mentors to the trainees. Association for European Paediatric and Congenital Cardiology will provide basic teaching courses to supplement the training process.

Percutaneous treatment of aortic coarctation is based on angioplasty and/or stenting of the isthmus. We report a case of a 28-year-old girl suffering from aortic coarctation syndrome (coarctation + ventricular septal defect + bicuspid aorta). She underwent coarctectomy with subclavian flap and pulmonary bandage followed by ventricular septal defect closure and bandage removal in her first year of life. When she was 27 years old, a follow-up echocardiography detected an isthmic pressure gradient and a demodulated Doppler in abdominal aorta. A cardiac catheterisation confirmed the diagnosis of aortic re-coarctation. An AndraStent® XL 48 mm was implanted with a resolution of the isthmic gradient. One year later, because of the reappearance of demodulated Doppler in abdominal aorta, a chest X-ray was performed, which showed a stent third-grade fracture. The fracture was corrected by positioning a covered stent cheatham platinum 45 mm through the fragments. The rarest complication after stenting procedures is the fracture of the device with an incidence between 0.01% and 0.08%. Pressure overload beyond the elastic threshold of the material and the pulsatile tension exerted by the blood flow on the walls of the stent are the main mechanisms at the base of the fracture, together with the compliance of the tissue. A vessel that underwent multiple surgical rearrangements could interfere with and complicate the physiopathology at the basis of the fracture. In conclusion, stenting is a safe technique to treat aortic coarctation; stent fracture is a rare event, and different anatomical and haemodynamic factors are related to this complication.

Primary cardiac tumours in infants and children are extremely rare, with an estimated incidence of 0.2% according to echocardiographic studies. Owing to their rarity, there is very little literature available, and most knowledge is based on collections of case reports. Therefore, we reviewed retrospectively our 27 years of clinical experience on the overall management of cardiac tumours among children in order to improve not only our knowledge but also to provide others with information about the incidence, clinical presentation, management, and long-term outcome of this rare disease. Between April, 1982 and April, 2009, 52 children were diagnosed with cardiac tumours at our Institution. Medical records and follow-up echocardiographic evaluations were studied. The diagnosis was prenatal in 35% of the patients. The most frequent tumour types were rhabdomyomas (61.5%), fibromas (15.4%), and myxomas (5.8%). There were no cases of primary malignant tumours. All diagnoses were achieved using two-dimensional echocardiography, and for 12 patients a pathological analysis was carried out. A total of 41 patients (79%) were managed medically, whereas 11 (21%) patients underwent surgical treatment. At a mean follow-up of 7.2 ± 5.4 years, two patients died of complications related to cardiac transplantation; all the remaining patients are in excellent clinical condition. In conclusion, cardiac tumours in paediatric practice are usually clinically and histologically benign. Only a few cases need surgery. Up to one-third of the cardiac masses are detectable prenatally. Rhabdomyoma is the most common histotype, followed by fibroma and myxoma. The long-term prognosis is generally good.

Anomalous origin of the right coronary artery from the pulmonary artery is a rare congenital defect. We describe the case of an infant with anomalous origin of the right coronary artery from the pulmonary artery in association with tetralogy of Fallot. This patient had a pre-operative echocardiographic diagnosis, which was confirmed by angiography, and later underwent a successful surgical repair.

The morphology of the aortic valve was studied in 1,022 heart specimens belonging to the collection of the Institute of Pathological Anatomy, University of Padua. Twenty specimens were found to have a unicommissural aortic valve, characterized by the presence of a single leaflet with only one functional commissure; however, the presence of two raphes enabled the recognition of a basically three-sinus arrangement. Age and gender were known in 19 cases: 14 male and five female, mean age nine days. In 19 cases, the unicommissural valve was dysplastic and resulted in a severe congenital aortic valvar stenosis. Only in two hearts was the unicommissural nature of the aortic valve an isolated finding; among the remaining 18, left ventricular fibroelastosis in 11, malformation of the mitral valve in 11, hypoplasia of the left ventricle in eight, ventricular septal defect in four, mitral atresia in three, and subaortic fibrous diaphragm in one. Furthermore, seven (35%) of these 20 unicommissural aortic valves were associated with coarctation of the aorta. Statistical analysis shows that this association is not a random event. Our findings support the hypothesis that the unicommissural aortic valve originates from the early fusion of the three mesenchymal valvar cushions or leaflet primordia. Although the present data do not exclude the possibility that reduction of the blood flow through the aorta during fetal life may play a role in the formation of the unicommissural aortic valve, they rather point in the direction that another etiologic factor, such as an anomalous migration of neural crest cells, may be responsible for the fusion of the valvar cushions.

We present a case of anomalous origin of the left pulmonary artery from a left-sided brachiocephalic artery via an arterial duct in a patient with a right aortic arch. Associated intracardiac anomalies were a large perimembranous ventricular septal defect and the persistence of a small vertical vein, connecting the pulmonary veins normally incorporated into the left atrium to the brachiocephalic vein. Spontaneous closure of the arterial duct occurred in the first days of life and was responsible for the circulatory “isolation” of the left pulmonary artery. The clinical course, surgical strategy and possible embryological explanation are described.

From January 1988 through to July 1994, 54 consecutive infants underwent an arterial switch operation for simple or more complex forms of complete transposition (concordant atrioventricular and discordant ventriculo-arterial connections). They ranged in age from 2 to 180 days. The Lecompte maneuver was performed in all. In the first 19 patients the harvested sinuses of Valsalva were filled with two separate patches of autologous preserved pericardium, while, in the last 35 patients, a wide pantaloon patch of tanned pericardium was employed. Five babies died within 30 days after the procedure (operative mortality of 9.2%, 70% CL 4–17%). Four survivors were found to have developed a significant supravalvar pulmonary stenosis from 1 month to 21 months postoperatively. Echocardiographic data showed a transpulmonary peak systolic gradient from 60 mmHg to 101 mmHg, with a right-to-left ventricular systolic pressure ratio from 0.65 to 0.9. Reoperation was performed from 8 months to 39 months after the arterial switch procedure. Supravalvar pulmonary stenosis was located at the level of the pulmonary trunk, extending distally in two cases, due to the growth of fibrous scarring tissue with partial calcification. The pulmonary valvar leaflets were involved in two cases. Relief of the obstruction was obtained by insertion of a wide shield-tailored polytetrafluoroethylene patch after making an inverted Y-shaped longitudinal incision in the pulmonary trunk between the anterior sinuses of Valsalva. No mortality occurred at reoperation. Early and midterm echocardiographic measurements showed the effectiveness of this technique, with only trivial or mild residual transpulmonary gradients.

Objective: To study the adaptive potential of the right ventricular myocardium after 30 days of mechanical-induced overload in rats from two different age groups. Materials and methods: We banded the pulmonary trunk, so as to increase the systolic work load of the right ventricle, in 19 adult Sprague-Dawley rats at the age of 10 weeks, and 16 weanlings when they were 3 weeks-old, using 10 adults and 10 weanlings as controls. We analysed the functional adaptation and structural changes of the right ventricular myocardium, blood vessels and interstitial tissue after 30 days of increased afterload. Results: The increased workload induced an increase of the right ventricular weight and free wall thickness in animals from both age groups when compared to controls. These changes were mostly related to cardiomyocytic hypertrophy, as confirmed by the expression of myocardial hypertrophic markers, without any apparent increase of their number, a “reactive” fibrosis especially evident in the adult rats, with p-value less than 0.0001, and a more extensive neocapillary network in the weanlings compared to the adults aubsequent to banding, the p-value being less than 0.0001. Conclusion: In response to right ventricular afterload, weanlings showed a higher adaptive capillary growth, which hampered the development of fibrosis as seen in the adult rats. Age seems to be a risk factor for adverse structural-functional changes of right ventricle subjected to increased workload.

hypoplasia, with or without dysplasia, of the subpulmonary ventricle is found in association with a wide spectrum of complex congenital cardiac anomalies. in these cardiac defects, the systemic ventricle is usually normal, while the subpulmonary one, usually of right morphology, is incapable of supporting the entire flow of blood to the lungs. there is now an alternative to the more classical functionally univentricular type of repair, which can be achieved by means of the total cavopulmonary connection, namely the partial biventricular, or the so called “one and a half ventricle” repair. in selected cases, by reducing the preload on the subpulmonary ventricle by construction of a bi-directional cavo-pulmonary shunt, it is possible to achieve complete separation of the pulmonary and systemic circulations, whilst still maintaining pulsatile flow of blood to the lungs. in this review, we describe our experience with the “one-and-a-half ” ventricular option, analysing the role of preoperative evaluation of the subpulmonary ventricle, and describing our results over the short and intermediate term.

We describe the surgical repair in three infants presenting with one pulmonary artery arising from the ascending aorta, the other artery arising normally from the right ventricle via the pulmonary trunk. Repair consisted of reimplantation of the anomalous pulmonary artery to the pulmonary trunk, in association with repair of associated intracardiac malformations. All patients survived the surgical procedures, and were discharged in stable clinical condition. Subsequently, two of the three patients developed stenosis at the surgical anastomosis relatively early after the initial procedure, and underwent reoperation. Although survival after operation is now expected for this malformation, reports of late results are lacking. Larger numbers of operations are needed before we can reach definitive conclusions.

The origin of one branch pulmonary artery from the ascending aorta in the presence of a pulmonary valve and main pulmonary artery is a very rare congenital cardiac anomaly. Patients and methods: Between January 1995 and June 2003, 3 infant girls presented with the origin of one branch artery from the ascending aorta, while the other pulmonary artery originated from the pulmonary trunk which was in continuity with the right ventricular outflow tract. The pulmonary artery that arose from the right ventricle was left in 2 and right in 1 patient. Results: At the age 13, 48 and 62 days respectively, the patients underwent surgical repair consisting with reimplantation of the anomalous pulmonary artery branch to the pulmonary trunk in association with repair of intracardiac malformations. There were no hospital deaths. Postoperative complications included: prologed intubation in two patients (10 and 16 days), low output syndrome in 1 patient, cardiac tamponade in 1 patient and seizures in 1 patient. All patients were discharged in good clinical condition. There have been no late deaths. Subsequently, two of the three patients developed stenosis at the surgical anastomosis relatively early after the initial procedure, and after unsuccessuful balloon dilation, underwent surgical reoperation. Conclusions: Although operative survival is now possible for this malformation, reports of late results are lacking. Two of the three patients developed stenosis at the surgical anastomosis relatively early after surgery. Larger numbers of operations are necessaries to reach definitive conclusions.

Video assisted thoracoscopic surgery for closure of the persistently patent arterial duct is an effective answer to the modern effort of seeking repair of congenital cardiac malformations with minimally invasive techniques.

Between June, 1994, and December, 2002, 150 consecutive patients with an echocardiographic diagnosis of isolated patency of the arterial duct were referred to our Institution for video assisted thoracoscopic closure. The median age at the time of operation was 45 months, with a range from 3 to 161 months, and mean weight was 18 kg, with a range from 4.2 to 73 kg. Video assisted closure was possible in 139 patients (93%). The mean operative time was 37 min, with a range from 14 to 89 min. In the remaining 11 patients (7%), seen early in our experience, we converted to a mini-thoracotomy to achieve closure. In no instance did we encounter major haemorrhage requiring blood transfusion, and there were no hospital deaths. The mean period of stay in hospital was less than 24 h in 61 patients, less than 48 h in 88 patients seen earlier in our experience, and 21 days in 1 patient because of a persistent chylothorax. Other complications included palsy of the left recurrent laryngeal nerve in 1 patient, with partial regression at 6 months follow-up.

We conclude that closure of the arterial duct by video-assisted thoroscopy combines the advantages of safe and complete extraluminal occlusion with an excellent clinical and aesthetic result, minimal postoperative pain, and short stay in hospital at low cost.