Pediheart: Pediatric Cardiology Today

This week we delve into the world of adult congenital heart disease to review the topic of liver disease in the Fontan patient and specifically, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). What is the prevalence of this disease in the Fontan single ventricle adult patient? How effective are scores like the MELD-XI or Fibrosis-4 Index at identification of HCC in the Fontan patient? How should the Fontan adult patient be surveilled for this form of cancer? What evidence is there that earlier identification of HCC is associated with better outcomes? What may prove to be the most important factor in protection of the liver in the Fontan patient? Dr. Yuli Kim, Director of the ACHD program at The University of Pennsylvania shares her deep insights this week into this important topic.  * DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehad788 [https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehad788]

This week we celebrate the life and career of Dr. Charles Mullins who passed this past week. Dr. Mullins was Professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and one of the pioneers in the world of congenital heart interventional cardiology. In today's episode we will listen back to an episode from 2021 from the SCAI 2021 meeting in which we interviewed Dr. Mullins and Dr. Julie Vincent (then Professor of Pediatrics at Columbia University). Drs. Mullins and Vincent discuss their lives as interventional cardiologists and also speak about the role that mentorship played in their long careers. Dr. Aimee Armstrong of Nationwide Children's Hospital also participates in this conversation. Following this interview replay with Drs. Mullins and Vincent, we speak with Dr. Frank Ing who is the Director of Pediatric Cardiology at UC Davis and the former director of the catheterization lab at Texas Children's and a former trainee and close friend of Dr. Mullins and his family. Dr. Ing shares his memories of training under Dr. Mullins, his thoughts on what was possibly Dr. Mullins' greatest professional contribution and finally speaks about what he learned about being a good mentor from his years with Dr. Mullins.

This week we speak for the entire episode with award winning author Patricia Meisol about her recent book entitled: A Heart Afire: Helen Brooke Taussig's Battle Against Heart Defects, Unsafe Drugs, and Injustice in Medicine. We review Dr. Taussig's early life and the impact it had on her life. Why was there friction between Drs. Taussig and Blalock? What was Dr. Taussig's role in the establishment of the most stringent drug testing rules in the world today? What would Dr. Taussig consider to be her greatest achievement? Was Dr. Taussig the first in our field to understand the notion of social determinants of health? Ms. Meisol reviews this and more in our wide ranging conversation about the extraordinary Professor Helen Taussig. We also share a brief conversation of Dr. Taussig from 1977, speaking about her role in the development of the BTT shunt.  For those interested, Ms. Meisel's book is available:  https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-heart-afire-helen-brooke-taussigs-battle-against-heart-defects-unsafe-drugs-and-injustice-in-medicine-patricia-meisol/19955020?ean=9780262048521 or wherever you get your books!

This week we speak for the entire episode with award winning author Patricia Meisol about her recent book entitled: A Heart Afire: Helen Brooke Taussig's Battle Against Heart Defects, Unsafe Drugs, and Injustice in Medicine. We review Dr. Taussig's early life and the impact it had on her life. Why was there friction between Drs. Taussig and Blalock? What was Dr. Taussig's role in the establishment of the most stringent drug testing rules in the world today? What would Dr. Taussig consider to be her greatest achievement? Was Dr. Taussig the first in our field to understand the notion of social determinants of health? Ms. Meisol reviews this and more in our wide ranging conversation about the extraordinary Professor Helen Taussig. We also share a brief conversation of Dr. Taussig from 1977, speaking about her role in the development of the BTT shunt.  For those interested, Ms. Meisel's book is available:  https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-heart-afire-helen-brooke-taussigs-battle-against-heart-defects-unsafe-drugs-and-injustice-in-medicine-patricia-meisol/19955020?ean=9780262048521 or wherever you get your books!

This week we enter the world of cardiac CT for congenital heart disease reviewing a recent report of a survey of congenital cardiologists who perform congenital heart CT scans. What have been the important trends seen in the past decade beyond expansion in the field in general? Why has the use of the CT scan grown at such a rapid clip? How much radiation does a present day CT scan represent for a patient? How are cardiology fellowships responding to the growing role of this modality in the field? How can we more properly assign accurate relative value units (RVU's) to the significant work effort involved in the performance and reporting of this novel modality. We speak with the first author of this week's work, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell, Dr. Rebecca Epstein.   doi: 10.1016/j.jcct.2024.02.002. Epub 2024 Feb 15.