Anomalous Origin of the Left Coronary Artery from the Pulmonary Artery: Diagnoses and Surgical Results in 12 Pediatric Patients

Anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery (ALCAPA) is a rare congenital condition. It responds well to early diagnosis and treatment, but otherwise the prognosis is poor. We present our case series of 12 patients (mean age, 2 ± 2.58 yr; age range, 2 mo–8 yr), emphasizing the diagnostic process and discussing our surgical results. The diagnosis of ALCAPA should be suspected in infants who have dilated cardiomyopathy with electrocardiographic changes that suggest ischemia, and in older children who have isolated mitral regurgitation. When clinical suspicion is high, the results of 2-dimensional echocardiography combined with color-flow Doppler studies in expert hands can establish the diagnosis, thus avoiding angiography in critically ill infants. The treatment of choice in our patients was transfer and reimplantation of the left coronary artery onto the ascending aorta. There were 2 deaths: both were infants in extremis who underwent emergency surgery. An older child with severe ventricular dysfunction was given mechanical ventricular assistance and then heart transplantation. As of this report, all 10 survivors remained well and asymptomatic.     

Pinealectomy interferes with the circadian clock genes expression in white adipose tissue

Melatonin, the main hormone produced by the pineal gland, is secreted in a circadian manner (24‐hr period), and its oscillation influences several circadian biological rhythms, such as the regulation of clock genes expression (chronobiotic effect) and the modulation of several endocrine functions in peripheral tissues. Assuming that the circadian synchronization of clock genes can play a role in the regulation of energy metabolism and it is influenced by melatonin, our study was designed to assess possible alterations as a consequence of melatonin absence on the circadian expression of clock genes in the epididymal adipose tissue of male Wistar rats and the possible metabolic repercussions to this tissue. Our data show that pinealectomy indeed has impacts on molecular events: it abolishes the daily pattern of the expression of Clock, Per2, and Cry1 clock genes and Pparγ expression, significantly increases the amplitude of daily expression of Rev‐erbα, and affects the pattern of and impairs adipokine production, leading to a decrease in leptin levels. However, regarding some metabolic aspects of adipocyte functions, such as its ability to synthesize triacylglycerols from glucose along 24 hr, was not compromised by pinealectomy, although the daily profile of the lipogenic enzymes expression (ATP‐citrate lyase, malic enzyme, fatty acid synthase, and glucose‐6‐phosphate dehydrogenase) was abolished in pinealectomized animals.