We describe the case of a 9-year-old girl demonstrating isolated absence of the coronary sinus with abnormal coronary venous drainage into the main pulmonary artery. Coronary angiography showed normal coronary arterial trees and contrast medium from both coronary arteries drained into the main pulmonary artery via an abnormal cardiac vein on the anterior wall of the right ventricle.

We report the first case of R-wave synchronised atrial pacing using a transoesophageal pacemaker. A 3-month-old baby developed a junctional ectopic tachycardia after surgical closure of a ventricular septal defect. R-wave synchronised atrial pacing with an external pacemaker was not possible owing to dislocation of the atrial epimyocardial pacing wires. Therefore, a temporary oesophageal pacemaker was connected in series to the external pacemaker to allow transoesophageal atrial pacing triggered by the preceding ventricular actions.

We describe transcatheter therapy for early onset occlusion or stenoses of extracardiac conduits in three children who had undergone Fontan completion. Successful stent implantation was associated with complete resolution of symptoms.

Nutritional rickets is still occasionally found in high-income countries, especially in populations at risk, and induced hypocalcaemia is a rare but possible cause of dilated cardiomyopathy. Although rare, physicians need to consider nutritional rickets in the differential diagnosis of hypocalcaemia cardiac failure, especially in high-risk populations such as immigrants. Despite being a reversible condition, the prognosis depends on the severity and time of diagnosis. We report two cases of exclusively breastfed infants with congestive cardiac failure due to hypokinetic dilated cardiomyopathy who had completely different outcomes. This report supports the need for prevention of this deficiency and underlies the role of vitamin D supplementation.

Primary idiopathic chylopericardium is a rare disease, particularly in children. We report the case of a 5-year-old male child who presented with cough and dyspnoea. Bulging of the chest wall and distant heart sounds suggested the diagnosis of a pericardial effusion, which was confirmed on a chest computed tomography. Pericardial drainage confirmed the diagnosis of a chylopericardium. After the failure of continuous catheter drainage, surgical ligation of the thoracic duct and the creation of a pericardial window were performed under thoracoscopy.

We present pressure–volume loops obtained from two patients with single-ventricle physiology, one with a modified Blalock–Taussig shunt and one with a right ventricle-to-pulmonary artery shunt. The dissimilarities in pressure–volume loop contour and related indices highlight potentially important differences in ventricular mechanics between the shunt types.