Ashley E. Neal¹, Elizabeth Lehto¹, Karen Hughes Miller², Erin Davis³, Craig Ziegler²

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.13, No.5, pp. 788-793, 2018, DOI:10.1111/chd.12626

Abstract Objective: The 2016 American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) content outline is comprehensive, including more than 50 cardiology-specific objectives within eight content areas. This study complements the quantitative analysis of a Kentucky-wide survey of trainees, pediatricians, and pediatric cardiologists asking them to identify “most important” cardiology content by analyzing their open-ended comments about “what should be added” and “why?” within these eight categories.
Design, Methods, Outcome Measures: This cross-sectional study used an original, online survey instrument based on the 2016 ABP cardiology-specific objectives. We began an initial analysis of the qualitative data using Pandit’s version of Glaser and Strauss Grounded theory… More >

Elizabeth C. Caris¹, Nicole Dempster², Gil Wernovsky³, Yongjie Miao², Melissa Moore-Clingenpeel², Trent Neely², Rachel Fonseca², Holly Miller-Tate², Robin Allen², Samantha Fichtner², Jamie Stewart², Clifford L. Cua²

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.13, No.4, pp. 528-532, 2018, DOI:10.1111/chd.12619

Abstract Objectives: Siblings of children with chronic medical conditions endorse a lower quality of life compared to age-matched peers. Caregiver and sibling-self report of adjustment are often discordant. Congenital heart disease significantly affects family life. To date, there have been no studies addressing the functioning of siblings of children with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, one of the most severe forms of congenital heart disease. The goal of this study was to assess the impact of hypoplastic left heart syndrome on sibling’s quality of life as well as the caregiver’s perception of this effect.
Study Design: Cross-sectional study using a web-based survey… More >

Xinyan Li¹, Xiaoxia Qiu¹, Huan Huang¹, Yili Zhao², Xueqin Li¹, Meng Li¹, Xiaoxian Tian¹

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.13, No.2, pp. 282-287, 2018, DOI:10.1111/chd.12568

Abstract Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of using fetal heart size measurements derived from axial echocardiography to predict homozygous α-thalassemia-1.
Design: Prospective diagnostic study.
Setting: The carrier rate of α-thalassemia-1 (–/αα) in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is approximately 15%. If both parents are carriers, the risk of homozygous a-thalassemia-1 in one pregnancy is 25%.
Patients: Singleton mid-pregnancies at risk of homozygous α-thalassemia-1 were enrolled.
Outcome Measures: Fetal heart measurements, including heart diameter (HD), heart length (HL), heart circumference (HC), and heart area (HA), were measured. The z-scores for these heart parameters were then calculated separately based on previously constructed z-score… More >

Ashley E. Neal¹, Elizabeth Lehto¹, Karen Hughes Miller², Craig Ziegler², Erin Davis²

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.13, No.1, pp. 147-153, 2018, DOI:10.1111/chd.12559

Abstract Objective: Although pediatrician-reported relevance of Canadian cardiology-specific objectives has been studied, similar data are not available for the 2016 American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) cardiology-specific objectives. This study asked Kentucky trainees, pediatricians, and pediatric cardiologists to identify “most important” content within these objectives.
Design, Methods, Outcome Measures: This cross-sectional study used an original, online survey instrument based on the 2016 ABP cardiology-specific objectives. We collected quantitative data (numerical indications of importance) and qualitative data (open-ended replies regarding missing content and difficulty in teaching and learning). Respondents indicated the top two choices of most important items within eight content areas. Descriptive… More >

William N. Evans^1,2, Ruben J. Acherman^1,2, Michael L. Ciccolo^1,3, Sergio A. Carrillo^1,2, Alvaro Galindo^1,2, Abraham Rothman^1,2, Gary A. Mayman^1,2, Elizabeth A. Adams^1,2, Leigh C. Reardon^1,4, Brody J. Winn⁵, Noel S. Yumiaco⁵, Lesley Shimuizu¹, Yoko Inanaga¹, Rowena J. Deleon¹, Humberto Restrepo^1,2

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.13, No.1, pp. 38-45, 2018, DOI:10.1111/chd.12558

Abstract Objective: We hypothesized that clinic-based, hepatic-ultrasound, elastography measurements, either alone or in combination with other noninvasive variables, might correlate with liver-biopsy fibrosis scores in patients post-Fontan.
Methods: Between March 2012 and February 2017, we identified patients post-Fontan that underwent elective cardiac catheterization and simultaneous transvenous hepatic biopsy. From this group, we selected patients that met inclusion criteria for liver-ultrasound, shear-wave elastography. Utilizing the results of elastography, laboratory testing, and time post-Fontan, we constructed a composite Fontan hepatic index as a sum of elastography measurements in kilopascals, model for end-stage liver disease excluding INR scores, and the square root of the… More >

Ashley R. Kroeger¹, Jacqueline Morrison², Andrew H. Smith¹

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.13, No.1, pp. 98-104, 2018, DOI:10.1111/chd.12525

Abstract Objective: Unplanned readmission to the pediatric cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The Pediatric Early Warning Score (PEWS) predicts ward patients at risk for decompensation but has not been previously reported to identify at-risk patients with cardiac disease prior to ward transfer. This study aimed to determine whether PEWS prior to transfer may serve as a predictor of unplanned readmission to the CICU.
Design: All patients discharged from a tertiary children’s hospital CICU from September 2012 through August 2015 were included for analysis. PEWS assessment was performed following transfer to the cardiac ward, and… More >

Rohit S. Loomba^1,2, Andrew N. Pelech^1,2

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.13, No.1, pp. 92-97, 2018, DOI:10.1111/chd.12510

Abstract Background: Pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular septum is a unique congenital malformation of the heart in which patients may undergo single-, two- or 1½- ventricle repair. Size of the tricuspid valve annulus, morphology of the right ventricle and presence of ventriculocoronary connections can all impact the selection of appropriate palliative strategy. We developed the aortic perfusion score, a novel scoring system based on anterograde coronary perfusion with the aim of being able to identify patients at risk for death or transplant.
Methods: A retrospective study was conducted. Patients were included if an initial catheterization was done prior to any intervention.… More >

Tiejun Wang¹, Liu Zhuang², Julian M. Kunkel³, Shu Xiao¹, Changming Zhao^{1, *}

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.63, No.3, pp. 1399-1413, 2020, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2020.09701

Abstract The Global-Regional Integrated forecast System (GRIST) is the nextgeneration weather and climate integrated model dynamic framework developed by Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences. In this paper, we present several changes made to the global nonhydrostatic dynamical (GND) core, which is part of the ongoing prototype of GRIST. The changes leveraging MPI and PnetCDF techniques were targeted at the parallelization and performance optimization to the original serial GND core. Meanwhile, some sophisticated data structures and interfaces were designed to adjust flexibly the size of boundary and halo domains according to the variable accuracy in parallel context. In addition, the I/O performance… More >

Yuli Y. Kim^1,2, Leah A. Goldberg², Katherine Awh², Tanmay Bhamare^1,2, David Drajpuch², Adi Hirshberg³, Sara L. Partington^1,2, Rachel Rogers⁴, Emily Ruckdeschel^1,2, Lynda Tobin¹, Morgan Venuti², Lisa D. Levine³

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.14, No.3, pp. 470-478, 2019, DOI:10.1111/chd.12750

Abstract Objective: To assess performance of risk stratification schemes in predicting adverse cardiac outcomes in pregnant women with congenital heart disease (CHD) and to compare these schemes to clinical factors alone.
Design: Single‐center retrospective study.
Setting: Tertiary care academic hospital.
Patients: Women ≥18 years with International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes indicating CHD who delivered between 1998 and 2014. CARPREG I and ZAHARA risk scores and modified World Health Organization (WHO) criteria were applied to each woman.
Outcome Measures: The primary outcome was defined by ≥1 of the following: arrhyth‐ mia, heart failure/pulmonary edema, transient ischemic attack, stroke,… More >

S. Torii¹

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.5, No.3, pp. 257-268, 2004, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2004.005.257

Abstract A numerical study is performed to investigate the thermal fluid-flow transport phenomena in the concentric annulus with a slightly heated rotating inner core moving in the flow direction and a stationary insulated outer cylinder. Emphasis is placed on the effects of the axial rotation and streamwise movement of inner core on the flow structure and heat transfer performance. A k-ε turbulence model is employed to determine the turbulent viscosity and the turbulent kinetic energy. The turbulent heat flux is expressed by Boussinesq approximation in which the eddy diffusivity for heat is determined using two-equation heat transfer model. The governing equations… More >