National Taiwan University Hospital sponsor a trial to test the ability of multi-detector spiral CT in evaluating the infant complex congenital heart disease.

Emory University find out the PCT response to heart surgery in children by taking blood before surgery and each day for four days after surgery. These blood draws will help us figure out the typical PCT response, the normal increase in PCT after heart surgery, and when the PCT level returns to baseline.

Second, they hope to determine the accuracy of PCT as a marker of infection.

The hypothesis is that Procalcitonin is superior to other currently used markers of infection and will prove to be a clinically useful tool for evaluation of infection in children following cardiac surgery.

The Children's Hospital Boston, Medtronic and the Guidant Corporation are conducting a randomized, prospective clinical trial comparing 2 different models of implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) leads in children and patients with congenital heart disease. ICD lead survival in this patient group is particularly suboptimal, and lead extraction is technically difficult and carries a substantial morbidity risk. Recently, improved ICD lead designs have been released and are currently being utilized in patients. The main aim of the study is to determine if either type of lead performs better in terms of implantation electrical characteristics, long-term survival without breaking, and ease of extractability.