Unilateral pulmonary artery atresia is a rare congenital defect. The affected lung in unilateral pulmonary artery atresia usually receives its blood supply from many collateral vessels including the coronary artery. We report a case of an elderly woman with suspected anginal symptoms who had a coronary artery fistula functioning as a collateral vessel due to unilateral pulmonary artery atresia.

Vascular stricture is a known complication of radiofrequency ablation. We used this potential of radiofrequency for voluntary restriction and closure of a pulmonary artery branch in a sheep.

We describe an infant born prematurely at 30 weeks gestation with Down's syndrome who became dependent on oxygen at 3 weeks of age after an uneventful initial neonatal period. There had been no evidence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia. An isolated aortopulmonary collateral artery of moderate size was mistakenly diagnosed as persistent patency of the arterial duct on echocardiography, and subsequently successfully occluded using two coils with an excellent clinical result. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first description of a congenital aortopulmonary collateral artery in a symptomatic infant with Down's syndrome and no evidence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia. We discuss the possible etiologies of these collateral arteries. It is important to include aortopulmonary collateral arteries in the differential echocardiographic diagnosis of an arterial duct.

Aortic coarctation can now be repaired surgically with excellent results. Even though rare, injury to the spinal cord resulting in paraplegia remains a major concern. Preoperative evaluation showing the absence of collateral circulation is valuable in order to introduce protective actions. This report describes our experience using a temporary bypass from the ascending to the descending aorta bypass in children undergoing surgical correction of aortic coarctation in the setting of poorly developed collateral circulation.

Between 1990 and 2002, we undertook direct surgical repair in 56 patients with isolated aortic coarctation, 20 as neonates, 11 as infants, and 25 during childhood. From 1998 onwards, we introduced preoperative evaluation of the collateral circulation with magnetic resonance imaging. From that time, we placed a temporary bypass from the ascending to the descending aorta, using a polytetrafluoroethylene tube of 4 to 8 mm diameter, whenever distal pressures were shown to be 25 mmHg or less after test clamping, or when magnetic resonance imaging revealed absence of collateral circulation.

We found excellent correlations between the direct intra-operative measurements of distal pressure and the findings at magnetic resonance imaging. Following introduction of the temporary bypass, we observed no neurological complications, nor were there any complications related to bypass. Freedom from restenosis was 96%.

Preoperative magnetic resonance imaging, therefore, can accurately visualize poor collateral circulation in children with aortic coarctation. The use of a temporary bypass can possibly eliminate the risk of neurological sequels following direct repair of coarctation in children with poorly developed collateral circulation. The temporary bypass is both easy to apply and safe.