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Myocarditis in children can result in significant morbidity and mortality, yet limited prognostic data exist. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that pediatric patients with arrhythmias during hospitalization for acute myocarditis have worse outcomes and increased resource utilization. A retrospective study using the Pediatric Health Information System database was performed to examine the effects of clinically significant arrhythmias on in-hospital mortality, length of stay, and costs per day. Data were obtained for children ≤18 years of age, discharged from January 1, 2004 to March 31, 2013, with a diagnosis of myocarditis. Clinically significant tachyarrhythmia was defined as supraventricular tachycardia, atrial fibrillation or flutter, or ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation in patients receiving antiarrhythmic medications or cardioversion. Clinically significant bradyarrhythmia was defined as second-degree, complete, or other heart block for which a pacemaker was placed. Multivariable analyses were performed. A total of 2,041 subjects with myocarditis were identified. Tachyarrhythmias were reported in 234 (11.5%) and bradyarrhythmias in 22 (1.1%). Overall mortality was 8.7%. In multivariable analyses, after considering the effects of gender, age at admission, geographic region, year and month of admission, presence of congenital heart disease or an identified virus, and use of steroids, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories, or inotropes, and after controlling for clustering by institution, tachyarrhythmias were associated with a 2.3 times increase in the odds of mortality (95% confidence interval 1.6 to 3.3, p < 0.001), a 58% increase in length of stay (95% confidence interval 38% to 82%, p < 0.001), and a 28% increase in costs per day (95% confidence interval 15% to 43%, p < 0.001). Bradyarrhythmia was not associated with mortality, length of stay, or costs per day. In conclusion, tachyarrhythmias are associated with significant increases in mortality and resource utilization in children with myocarditis., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Transtelephonic monitoring (TTM) of pediatric patients with cardiac pacemakers (PMs) has been shown to have high sensitivity and specificity in identifying PM malfunction. The objective of this study is to determine if there is a difference in the rate of abnormal TTM findings in transvenous versus epicardial PM systems., Methods: Our TTM database was reviewed. Patients younger than 21 years of age enrolled for TTM between 1990 and 2010 were included. The abnormal TTM recordings (not including elective replacement indicator) were identified. Logistic regression was used for statistical analysis. Note that P < 0.05 was considered significant., Results: We identified 186 patients. There were 75 (40%) epicardial systems. The mean age at TTM enrollment was 6.8 ± 5.9 years (2 months-20.2 years). There were 41 (22%) patients with abnormal TTM findings. The abnormalities were found in 23/75 (31%) epicardial and 18/111 (16%) transvenous systems (odds ratio [OR]: 2.3, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.13-4.62, P = 0.02). When controlling for age and presence of heart disease the OR for abnormal transmission in epicardial systems compared with transvenous was 2.1 (95% CI: 1.03-4.43, P = 0.04). Patients with epicardial systems were more likely to have capture abnormalities on TTM than transvenous systems (OR: 6.1, 95% CI: 1.9-19.5, P = 0.002)., Conclusion: Pediatric patients with epicardial PM systems are more likely to have abnormal TTM test (particularly capture problems) than patients with transvenous systems regardless of age or presence of heart disease. Consequently, patients with epicardial PM systems should be followed closely with TTM., (©2013, The Authors. Journal compilation ©2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)