Cardiac structural and functional alterations in infants and children with biliary atresia, listed for liver transplantation.

ABSTRACT:

Background & aims

Cirrhotic liver diseases are associated with abnormalities in cardiac geometry and function in adults (cirrhotic cardiomyopathy) but rarely explored in cirrhotic infants or children. We proposed that features of cirrhotic cardiomyopathy are present in infants with cirrhosis due to biliary atresia (BA) as early as the time of evaluation for liver transplant and will correlate with mortality and postoperative morbidity.

Methods

Two-dimensional echocardiography (2DE) of infants with BA (n=40; median age, 8 months), listed for transplantation at the Texas Children's Hospital from 2004 to 2010, were reviewed and compared with age- and sex-matched infants without cardiac or liver disease (controls). Length of stay and correlation with 2DE results were assessed.

SUBMITTER: Desai MS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3740524 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature