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Background: Multicenter studies on idiopathic or viral pericarditis and pericardial effusion (PPE) have not been reported in children. Colchicine use for PPE in adults is supported. We explored epidemiology and management for inpatient hospitalizations for PPE in US children and risk factors for readmission. Methods and Results: We analyzed patients in the Pediatric Health Information System database for (1) a code for PPE; (2) absence of codes for underlying systemic disease (eg, neoplastic, cardiac, rheumatologic, renal); (3) age ≥30 days and <21 years; and (4) discharge between January 1, 2007, and December 31, 2012, from 38 hospitals contributing complete data for each year of the study period. Among 11 364 hospitalizations with PPE codes during the study period, 543 (4.8%) met entry criteria for idiopathic or viral PPE. Significantly more boys were noted, especially among adolescents. No temporal trends were noted. Median age was 14.5 years (interquartile range 7.3 to 16.6 years); 78 patients (14.4%) underwent pericardiocentesis, 13 (2.4%) underwent pericardiotomy, and 11 (2.0%) underwent pericardiectomy; 157 (28.9%) had an intensive care unit stay, including 2.0% with tamponade. Median hospitalization was 3 days (interquartile range 2 to 4 days). Medications used at initial admission were nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (71.3%), corticosteroids (22.7%), aspirin (7.0%), and colchicine (3.9%). Readmissions within 1 year of initial admission occurred in 46 of 447 patients (10.3%), mostly in the first 3 months. No independent predictors of readmission were noted, but our statistical power was limited. Practice variation was noted in medical management and pericardiocentesis. Conclusions: Our report provides the first large multicenter description of idiopathic or viral PPE in children. Idiopathic or viral PPE is most common in male adolescents and is treated infrequently with colchicine.

Introduction & Hypothesis: There is limited information on right atrial (RA) function in the congenital heart defects. RA volume and function may give insight into the right ventricle (RV) diastolic function. We sought to assess RA function in tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) patients prior to and after complete surgical repair. Methods: Infants with TOF prior to complete repair were included for retrospective chart review and offline analysis of 2-dimensional echocardiograms (echo) before and after surgical repair. RA phasic volumes and stroke volumes were calculated. All volumes were indexed to body surface area. Results: There were 40 infants with TOF (45% females), of which 70% had pulmonary stenosis, 30% pulmonary atresia. Roughly 85% and 60% had 3, or more, echo available pre- and postoperatively. Table 1 (attached) shows the patient characteristics and phasic RA volumes. The indexed RA phasic volumes were in normal range in initial echo prior to surgery. We used normal index RA phasic volumes published by European Society of Echocardiography. There was the increasing trend of indexed RA phasic volume on follow up echo immediately before TOF repair. These phasic volumes continued to remain elevated after complete surgical repair (Table 1). Trends in RA stroke volumes for all available echos before and after surgery were modeled using a population-averaged model with an exchangeable within-panel correlation structure (Figure 2), showing no statistically significant difference after surgery. But there was statistical significance noted in RA ejection fraction. Please see attached image for statistical analysis and results of the study. Conclusions: The indexed RA phasic volumes in children with TOF are normal initially and increases before TOF repair and it continued to increase after TOF repair. The increase RA phasic volumes suggest RV diastolic dysfunction similar to the findings of LA phasic volumes and left ventricular diastolic dysfunction. Our findings indicate slow worsening RV diastolic function in patients with TOF after surgical repair. RA volume and function can be the novel marker to diagnose and monitor right ventricular diastolic dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]