Background: Neonatal myocardial infarction is rare and is associated with a high mortality of 40% to 50%. We report our experience with neonatal myocardial infarction, including presentation, management, outcomes, and our current patient management algorithm.
Methods: We reviewed all infants admitted with a diagnosis of coronary artery thrombosis, coronary ischemia, or myocardial infarction between January 2015 and May 2021.
Results: We identified 21 patients (median age, 1 [interquartile range (IQR), 0.25-9.00] day; weight, 3.2 [IQR, 2.9-3.7] kg). Presentation included respiratory distress (16), shock (3), and murmur (2). Regional wall motion abnormalities by echocardiogram were a key criterion for diagnosis and were present in all 21 with varying degrees of depressed left ventricular function (severe [8], moderate [6], mild [2], and low normal [5]). Ejection fraction ranged from 20% to 54% (median, 43% [IQR, 34%-51%]). Mitral regurgitation was present in 19 (90%), left atrial dilation in 15 (71%), and pulmonary hypertension in 18 (86%). ECG was abnormal in 19 (90%). Median troponin I was 0.18 (IQR, 0.12-0.56) ng/mL. Median BNP (B-type natriuretic peptide) was 2100 (IQR, 924-2325) pg/mL. Seventeen had documented coronary thrombosis by cardiac catheterization. Seventeen (81%) were treated with intracoronary tPA (tissue-type plasminogen activator) followed by systemic heparin, AT (antithrombin), and intravenous nitroglycerin, and 4 (19%) were treated with systemic heparin, AT, and intravenous nitroglycerin alone. Nineteen of 21 recovered. One died (also had infradiaphragmatic total anomalous pulmonary venous return). One patient required a ventricular assist device and later underwent heart transplant; this patient was diagnosed late at 5 weeks of age and did not respond to tPA. Nineteen of 21 (90%) regained normal left ventricular function (ejection fraction, 60%-74%; mean, 65% [IQR, 61%-67%]) at latest follow-up (median, 6.8 [IQR, 3.58-14.72] months). Two of 21 (10%) had residual trivial mitral regurgitation. After analysis of these results, we present our current algorithm, which developed and matured over time, to manage neonatal myocardial infarction.
Conclusions: We experienced a lower mortality rate for infants with neonatal infarction than that reported in the literature. We propose a post hoc algorithm that may lead to improvement in patient outcomes following coronary artery thrombus.
Collaborative innovation is increasingly put forward as a way of addressing the many wicked problems our society faces today. This article focuses on how politicians indirectly affect projects of collaborative innovation and whether stakeholders experience them as helpful or hindering to the project. The impact of politicians on projects of collaborative innovation are compared across four cases and throughout three project phases (set-up, implementation and sustainment). The results show six ways in which politicians can help projects of collaborative innovation: by providing funding, by making a project a political priority, by connecting stakeholders, by resolving stakeholder conflicts, by unblocking red tape barriers and by extending a collaborative network legitimacy. Furthermore, stakeholders perceived politicians as potentially hindering collaborative innovation projects in three ways: through the adjustment of the project goals, through the loss of a project’s ‘neutral’ status and through blocking or obstructing a project.
One important point to take away for practitioners is that there appears to be a strong focus among stakeholders on the potentially hindering effects of politicians on collaborative innovation projects (CIPs). Yet, across the four cases, the positive impact of political support played a bigger role. While some of these findings can be case specific, it shows that public servants may benefit from being more open-minded about the potentially positive impact of politicians on CIPs.
Seed weight and size are important yield components. Thus, selecting for large seeds has been a key objective in crop domestication and breeding. In common bean, seed shape is also important since it influences industrial processing and plays a vital role in determining the choices of consumers and farmers. In this study, we performed genome-wide association studies on a core collection of common bean accessions to dissect the genetic architecture and identify genomic regions associated with seed morphological traits related to weight, size, and shape. Phenotypic data were collected by high-throughput image-based approaches, and utilized to test associations with 10,362 single-nucleotide polymorphism markers using multilocus mixed models. We searched within genome-associated regions for candidate genes putatively involved in seed phenotypic variation. The collection exhibited high variability for the entire set of seed traits, and the Andean gene pool was found to produce larger, heavier seeds than the Mesoamerican gene pool. Strong pairwise correlations were verified for most seed traits. Genome-wide association studies identified marker-trait associations accounting for a considerable amount of phenotypic variation in length, width, projected area, perimeter, and circularity in 4 distinct genomic regions. Promising candidate genes were identified, e.g. those encoding an AT-hook motif nuclear-localized protein 8, type 2C protein phosphatases, and a protein Mei2-like 4 isoform, known to be associated with seed size and weight regulation. Moreover, the genes that were pinpointed are also good candidates for functional analysis to validate their influence on seed shape and size in common bean and other related crops.