[The best in 2000 on pediatric cardiology]

The year 2000 was rich in events, either spectacular news or confirmed improvement of on-going advances, as far as paediatric cardiology is concerned. The selection presented by the authors includes the first percutaneous implantation in a human being of a biological (bovine) valve which was sewn on a stent, compressed into a catheter and inserted against a stenotic and leaking procine bioprosthesis in a right-ventricle to pulmonary-artery conduit. This may be a new way to further valve replacements as alternatives to surgery. Balloon dilation of late postoperative recoarctations is now also improved with the use of stents able to maintain the result and to avoid traumatic injuries, with new coaxial double balloons making the procedure easier and safer. This is probably one of the main elements in reducing this very particular form of hypertension, the anatomic cause of which is often difficult to understand. As for yesterday's daring innovations now becoming near-routine protocols, two examples are developed. First, the rehabilitation of pulmonary arteries in pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect and complex pulmonary blood supply, both by true pulmonary vessels and by collaterals, both being stenotic and/or hypoplastic, anastomosed or not. The anatomic and functional details of such a vascular setting should be accurately understood and treated by early and aggressive surgery and interventional procedures in order to promote antegrade flow, distal angiogenesis, and, finally, active and harmonious vascular growth compatible with complete repair. The second example is Friedreich's ataxia in which, within 3 years of the discovery of the pathogenic mechanism, the deficiency in frataxin and its intra-cellular toxic consequences have been demonstrated, leading to a logical medical therapy which proves to be effective in treating (and maybe in preventing) the severe hypertrophic cardiomyopathy associated to this disease.