Pediatric arrhythmology deals with studying of frequency and regularity of heart rhythm disorders in childhood. Rhythm disturbances (dysrhythmias, arrhythmias) occur as a result of disturbances in the creation or conduction of stimuli in the specific or working musculature of the heart. Simplifying the knowledge of everyday work on pediatric arrhythmias, they can originate from the atria of the heart when we speak about supraventricular arrhythmias or from the heart chambers when we talk about ventricular arrhythmias. There are currently three major problems that burden pediatric cardiologists and pediatric arrhythmologists, and which are the focus of interest in pediatrics as a whole. These are primarily sudden cardiac death in children (SCD), fetal arrhythmias (FA) and postoperative-incisional arrhythmias (IA). The development of pediatric arrhythmology is imperative in the development of pediatrics and pediatric cardiology.

Objective - The purpose of this investigation was to determine the frequencies and types of associated congenital heart disease and other cardiac lesions in children with congenital anomalies of the kidneys and urinary tract (CAKUT). Participants and method - This was a prospective cardiac evaluation of children with diagnosed CAKUT, conducted between January 2013 and December 2015 at the Department of Pediatrics of the University Clinical Hospital, Tuzla. All cases were reviewed for age, gender, consanguinity, occurrence of congenital heart disease (CHD) and CAKUT in family history. Cardiac examination included: physical examination, noninvasive blood pressure measurement, a twelve lead electrocardiogram and echocardiogram. Results - Complete cardiac examination was performed in 144 children with congenital anomalies of the kidneys and urinary tract. Clinically insignificant morphological or hemodynamical changes were noted in 13% or 9.0% children. Congenital heart disease was found in 32 (22.2%), hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in 2 and pulmonary hypertension in 1 of the 144 children. In 4 children congenital heart disease was part of other known genetic syndromes, and all of these cases had severe CHD. In twenty-six or 76.5% of the total of 32 patients it was already known, and in 6 (23.5%) CHD was discovered during this research. Ventricular septal defect was the most common malformation (13% or 40.6% of patients). Vesicoureteral reflux was the most frequent CAKUT associated with CHD. Conclusions - The results of this study showed a significant association between CAKUT and CHD. Therefore we suggest performing cardiac assessment of all children with CAKUT.

The aim of this study was to evaluate preoperative and postoperative growth in children with congenital heart disease (CHD) when cardio-surgical treatment is delayed. Growth data were analysed on 116 children with various types of CHD (cyanotic lesions (Group 1), left to right shunt (Group 2) and obstructive lesions (Group 3)), who underwent cardiac surgery after a certain period of waiting. Preoperatively, during the time (median 1.13 (0.55-2.39)) years of waiting for surgery, their mean weight z-score decreased from -1.38 (+/- 1.19) to -1.41 (+/- 1.28), and their mean height z-score from -0.65 (+/- 1.41) to -0.81 (+/- 1.36). Children in Group 1 developed a significant linear growth deficit, in Group 2 weight was more affected than height, while in Group 3 both growth parameters were gradually slowly, but not significantly reduced. Postoperatively weight and height z scores, although they showed a linear trend of improvement for all three groups, remained significantly reduced for two years after surgery. At the time of the last examination at the age 9.11 (5.66-13.10) years, the mean height z score -0.16 (+/- 1.28), was significantly reduced p < 0.0001, than predicted height 0.23 (+/- 0.82). Growth catch-up was related to age at surgery and preoperative growth deficit. Delayed cardiac surgery in children with CHD aggravated growth deficit and caused slow and incomplete postoperative growth catch-up.

The aim of this study was to assess the quality of life children after cardiac surgery for congenital heart disease (CHD) and to compare these results with healthy children. To assess the quality of life children after surgery for CHD we performed a cross-sectional study of 114 patients who were patients at the Department of Paediatrics in Tuzla, between the ages of 2 and 18 years, of both sexes, and with one of their parents. We used the "PedsQL 4.0 Generic Core Scales", with both child self-report and parent proxy-reports. By self assessment, the PedsQL total scores for quality of life were statistically significantly different between children after cardiac surgery for ages 13 to 18 years and healthy children, while by parent report PedsQL total scores were statistically significantly different between children after cardiac surgery for ages 5 to 7 years and healthy children. By self assessment, children after cardiac surgery for ages from 5 to 7 and 13 to 18 years reported that they have a statistically significantly lower quality of life in the segment school functioning compared to the healthy children. By parental assessment, children after cardiac surgery for ages 2 to 4, 5 to 7 and 8 to 12 years have a statistically significantly lower quality of life in the segments of physical and psychosocial health, emotional, social and school functioning. The results of our study indicate that children after cardiac surgery for CHD by self and parent assessment have a lower quality of life than healthy children.

A 6.6-year-old girl presented for leftsided cardiac enlargement on chestradiography (Panel A). Th ree yearsearlier she had undergone a lobectomyof the lower lobe of the leftlung for extraction of an echinococcalcyst.