For the case group, we targeted children with chronic HF, defined by the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation Practice Guidelines for Management of Heart Failure in Children17 (link) as a syndrome resulting from ventricular dysfunction, volume overload or pressure overload, alone or in combination. The definition of chronic HF has changed from the traditional definition of a syndrome that results from inadequate cardiac output to maintain end-organ perfusion to the new definition in adults, which incorporates disorders of ventricular filling, that is, diastolic dysfunction or HF with preserved ejection fraction (EF).18
Therefore, patients with systolic and diastolic chronic HF who fulfilled one or more of the following criteria were included in the study:
All patients included in the study did not have their structural cardiac abnormalities corrected.
The control group included a group of age-matched and sex-matched healthy children who were referred to the cardiology clinic for innocent murmurs and found to be free of any cardiac disease.
Therefore, patients with systolic and diastolic chronic HF who fulfilled one or more of the following criteria were included in the study:
All patients included in the study did not have their structural cardiac abnormalities corrected.
The control group included a group of age-matched and sex-matched healthy children who were referred to the cardiology clinic for innocent murmurs and found to be free of any cardiac disease.
