Cardiology & Heart Surgery
Children’s National Hospital-affiliated participants will present at this year’s Pediatric Academic Societies meeting. The meeting will take place in Toronto, from May 2-6, 2024. For information on the presentations, please refer to the chart below.
Attending the American Association for Thoracic Surgery’s 104th Annual Meeting this weekend? Stop by the Children’s National Booth #1315! Here is a look at the topics that our Childrens National Heart Center will be presenting on. We look forward to connecting with you in Toronto.
| Name | Session & Role | Topic | Type | Date | Time | Location |
| Can Yerebakan, M.D. | Congenital Scientific Session: Strategies for Management of the Borderline Heart
(Speaker)
|
Debate: Hybrid is the Default Pathway- Pro | Oral Presentation | Saturday, April 27, 2024 | 8:50 a.m. | Room 716 |
| Yves d’Udekem, M.D., Ph.D. | AATS/CHSS Summit: Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome
(Commentator)
|
Are We Getting better? Ongoing Challenges of Atrioventricular Valve Repair in Single Ventricle Patients with Right Ventricular Morphology | Oral Presentation | Saturday, April 27, 2024 | 1:30 – 3:56 p.m. | Room 716 |
| Yves d’Udekem, M.D., Ph.D. | Congenital Rapid Fire Orals – Theater Session I
(Case Video Presenter) |
Early Pulmonary veins Channeling in a Complex Heterotaxia Heart wit | Oral Presentation | Sunday, April 28, 2024 | 9:12 a.m. | Theater 1 |
| Eiri Kisamori, M.D. | Congenital Rapid Fire Orals
(Presenter) |
Alarming Rate of Liver Cirrhosis After the Small Conduit Extracardiac Fontan.
A Comparative Analysis With the Lateral Tunnel. |
Abstract Presentation | Sunday, April 28, 2024 | 11:43 a.m. | Room 716 |
| Rittal Mehta, MS, BDS | Congenital Poster Session II
(Presenter) |
Navigating the Future of Pediatric Cardiovascular surgery: Insights and Innovation powered by ChatGPT. | Poster Presentation | Monday, April 29, 2024 | 8:00 a.m. | Poster Area |
| Can Yerebakan, M.D. | Congenital Poster Session II
(Presenter) |
Can Delayed Norwoods in High Risk Patients Achieve Similar Results than Primary Norwood for Low Risk Patients. | Poster Presentation | Monday, April 29, 2024 | 8:00 a.m. | Poster Area |
| Arif Selcuk, M.D. | Congenital Rapid Fire Orals – Theater Session III
(Presenter) |
Initial Rescue of a High-Risk Newborn by Atrial Kissing Procedure’ for Left Atrium Decompression and Bilateral Pulmonary Artery Banding. | Case Video Presentation | Monday, April 29, 2024 | 3:51 p.m. | Theater 1 |
| Yves d’Udekem, M.D., Ph.D. | Congenital Disasters and Rescues
(Speaker) |
Mitral Valve Repair Techniques in Neonates and Infants’ Rather than a Specific Situation? | Oral Presentation | Tuesday, April 30, 2024 | 8:45 a.m. | Room 716 |
In the complex world of pediatric diseases, researchers need access to data to develop clinical trials and the participation of vulnerable patients to develop new devices and therapies. Both are in short supply, given that most children are born healthy, and most severe pediatric diseases are rare.
That creates a dilemma: how do researchers build a foundation to advance new treatments? Enter artificial intelligence (AI).
“AI is the equalizer: accelerated intelligence for sick kids. No other advance on the horizon holds more promise for improving equity and access to pediatric healthcare when diseases are rare and resources are limited,” says Marius George Linguraru, D.Phil., M.A., M.Sc., the Connor Family Professor in Research and Innovation and principal investigator in the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation (SZI). “AI will shrink the distance between patient and provider, allowing our physicians and scientists to provide targeted healthcare for children more efficiently. The possibilities are endless.”
By pioneering AI innovation programs at Children’s National Hospital, Dr. Linguraru and the AI experts he leads are ensuring patients and families benefit from a coming wave of technological advances. The team is teaching AI to interpret complex data that could otherwise overwhelm clinicians. Their work will create systems to identify at-risk patients, forecast disease and treatment patterns, and support complex clinical decisions to optimize patient care and hospital resources. Already, the AI team at SZI has developed data-driven tools touching nearly every corner of the hospital:
Looking ahead, the Children’s National AI team is pursuing a wide range of advances in clinical care. To support patients treated at multiple clinics, they are developing systems to harmonize images from different scanners and protocols, such as MRI machines made by different manufacturers. Similar work is underway to analyze pathology samples from different institutions consistently.
Automation is also making care more efficient. For example, using data from 1 million chest X-rays, the team is collaborating with NVIDIA to develop a conversational digital assistant that will allow physicians to think through 14 possible diagnoses.
Dr. Linguraru says he and his colleagues are galvanized by the jarring statistic that one in three children with a rare disease dies before age 5. While well-implemented AI initiatives can change outcomes, he says the work must be done thoughtfully.
“In the future, patients will be evaluated by human clinicians and machines with extraordinary powers to diagnose illness and determine treatments,” Dr. Linguraru said. “Our team at Children’s National is leading conversations about the future of pediatric healthcare with a focus on safety, resource allocation and basic equity.”
The child-sized, lightweight, wearable band enables at-home monitoring of patient vital signs.
As their infant daughter recovered from a life-threatening virus, tech executive Jonathan Baut and his wife lived in a constant state of alert for any signs of a change in her condition. That experience prompted Baut to look for an at-home vital signs monitoring solution for parents facing medical challenges at home.
He located the technology in Belgium and found the clinical support to advance the innovation at Children’s National Hospital, tapping into its leadership of a pediatric device consortium funded by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Alliance for Pediatric Device Innovation (APDI).
The technology platform, called Gabi SmartCare, features a tiny, lightweight, wearable band made for children that enables at-home monitoring of a patient’s vital signs including oxygen saturation, and heart rate movement. It also supports the collection of other data about health conditions through health assessment.
Wireless home-based monitoring could reduce hospital stays while improving the transitional care provided to patients at home. It could also aid in the home care of chronically ill patients.
Recently, Gabi SmartCare received its FDA clearance as a class II device for monitoring use. Baut says the multifaceted support he received from Children’s National and APDI helped him achieve this critical milestone, including the hospital’s role as one of two U.S. clinical trial sites for the device.
He explained that the APDI team also connected him with experts in device trials, regulatory processes and reimbursement, which helped him better understand the U.S. market and the nuances of the pediatric continuum of care.
Physicians can remotely monitor patient’s oxygen saturation and heart rate movement.
As he focuses on getting his product into hospitals, Baut already has additional monitoring features in development for Gabi SmartCare including respiratory rate, actigraphy, skin auto-calibration and sleep phases.
Reliable at-home monitoring tools can expand a pediatric hospital’s capabilities to support patients beyond the hospital setting. They can also help reduce trips to the emergency room and reduce the stress and anxiety parents experience when providing home care. Helping to advance devices like these can deliver those benefits to patient families at Children’s National and beyond.
“The pandemic underscored a great need for technologies that improve remote monitoring for children,” said Kolaleh Eskandanian, Ph.D. M.B.A., P.M.P., Children’s National vice president and chief innovation officer and program director of APDI. “At-home monitoring devices enable remote and continuous surveillance of pediatric patients, ensuring timely intervention and optimal care delivery even in remote or resource-limited settings. These technologies are needed now, and even more during public health emergencies.”
Image credit: Transfusion, April 2024
Children undergoing cardiac surgery using cardiopulmonary bypass are exposed to high levels of plastic chemical additives called phthalates, including DEHP, according to the largest single center study to date to measure this exposure. The findings were authored by a multi-disciplinary group from Children’s National Hospital and appear in the journal Transfusion.
Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is one of the most commonly used plasticizers in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics, making up 40% to 80% of the finished weight of medical-grade tubing and blood storage bags. The study’s primary goal was to quantify three aspects of pediatric cardiac surgery: the phthalate exposure with and without cardiopulmonary bypass (the heart and lung machine), the time it takes for phthalates to clear after surgery and any correlations between higher phthalate exposures and postoperative complications.
The authors suggested that, like infants in the NICU exposed to various medical equipment, children on cardiopulmonary bypass are likely exposed to significant DEHP levels from blood products, bypass circuit components, and endotracheal tubes, potentially impacting postoperative outcomes.
Despite daily phthalate exposure in the general population, studies link high phthalate levels to developmental delays in language and motor skills. Phthalates accumulate in the hearts of infants undergoing umbilical catheterizations or blood transfusions. This is worrisome as even low-dose environmental exposure correlates with higher risks of overall and cardiovascular-related mortality.
Knowing these risks exist, it is important to understand these exposures, what causes them and implement measures to mitigate them, safeguarding medically fragile children. Regulatory actions in NICUs have reduced DEHP-containing plastics, yet no such efforts have been made for children on cardiopulmonary bypass.
The study also found some associations between postoperative complications and higher levels of phthalates, especially in younger children. They write, “it is plausible that a combination for risk factors (young age, longer CPB duration, increased phthalate exposure) collectively contribute to these complications.” More research is needed to understand the association and the impact of phthalates on how children recover from surgery.
The study involved 110 pediatric patients undergoing 122 cardiac surgeries at Children’s National, marking the largest single-center investigation into phthalate exposures in cardiac surgery. Led by a multidisciplinary team, including divisions of Transfusion Medicine and Cardiac Surgery, along with researchers from the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation, the study’s findings are some of the first to quantify that pediatric cardiac surgery patients are exposed to greater levels of these phthalate chemicals from plastic medical products, with increasing exposure the longer they require cardiopulmonary bypass. This is especially true when the bypass uses a prime based on red blood cells.
The teams are exploring strategies to minimize chemical exposures, such as:
“These exposures will affect patients undergoing pediatric cardiac surgery at any institution,” says first author Devon Guerrelli, M.S. “But we hope understanding what’s causing the exposures will help operating rooms around the United States take immediate small steps, like using washed red blood cells, to begin mitigating these exposures as soon as possible.”
Senior author Nikki Posnack, Ph.D., adds that the implications of phthalates on health are tremendous. “Studies have shown that heightened phthalate exposure increases your risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality,” she said. “Now is the time to support research efforts to understand how plastic chemicals damage the heart and to investigate strategies to reduce their overall impact.”
Read the study:
Prevalence and clinical implications of heightened plastic chemical exposure in pediatric patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass
Dr. Franklin will oversee the full spectrum of heart care services including cardiac imaging and diagnostics, interventional cardiology, electrophysiology, cardiac anesthesia, cardiac surgery and cardiac intensive care.
Children’s National Hospital has appointed Wayne J. Franklin, M.D., F.A.C.C., as the new senior vice president (SVP) of the Children’s National Heart Center. In this role, Dr. Franklin will oversee the full spectrum of heart care services including cardiac imaging and diagnostics, interventional cardiology, electrophysiology, cardiac anesthesia, cardiac surgery and cardiac intensive care. He joins us from Phoenix Children’s in Arizona and starts June 2024.
Dr. Franklin currently serves as co-director, medical director of Quality and endowed chair in the Center for Heart Care and associate director of the Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program at Phoenix Children’s. He’s also a professor of Child Health, Medicine, and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix.
Dr. Franklin is involved with research focused on adults with congenital heart disease, specifically single ventricle-Fontan physiology, neurocognitive outcomes, pulmonary hypertension, cardiac disease in pregnancy and transition medicine. After a national search, he stood out for his clinical and research accomplishments, as well as his demonstrated ability as a visionary leader and mentor.
“I look forward to leading the exceptional Heart Center team at Children’s National, as we contribute to advancing pediatric cardiac care and research,” said Dr. Franklin. “There is a clear dedication to clinical excellence and innovation, and together we’ll continue to advance the field and make a lasting impact on the lives of the children and families we serve.”
Dr. Franklin is a graduate of Williams College in Williamstown, MA, and UCLA School of Medicine. He completed his residency training in internal medicine and pediatrics at Duke University. He then completed two simultaneous fellowships in adult cardiology and pediatric cardiology at St. Luke’s/Texas Heart Institute and at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.
“Dr. Franklin brings a wealth of expertise and steadfast leadership that will undoubtedly strengthen the foundation of our cardiac program,” said David Wessel, M.D., executive vice president, chief medical officer and physician-in-chief at Children’s National. “Together with our Heart Center leadership team, he will ensure we’re meeting the highest standards of safety, quality and innovative care for our patients and families.”
The Children’s National Heart Center is a multidisciplinary center that provides high-quality and innovative pediatric cardiac care. In his role as SVP, Dr. Franklin will lead our Heart Center to new heights in pediatric heart care, innovation and education, working together with Yves d’Udekem, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the Division of Cardiac Surgery, Ricardo Muñoz, M.D., chief of the Division of Cardiac Critical Care Medicine and Andrew Waberski, M.D., director of Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesia.
The Bloom Standard device enables autonomous, hands-free ultrasound scans to be performed anywhere, by any user.
A novel ultrasound device developed by Bloom Standard received the Food and Drug Administration’s valued breakthrough device designation with the help of Children’s National Hospital and support provided through an FDA-funded grant that established the Alliance for Pediatric Device Innovation (APDI), formerly branded as the National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation (NCC-PDI). The grant funding, clinical expertise and regulatory guidance demonstrate the hospital’s leadership in pediatric medical device innovation and its commitment to supporting critically needed advancements.
“In many ways, Children’s National has been a key resource as we continue this journey from concept to commercialization,” said Annamarie Saarinen, co-founder of Bloom Standard and the mother of an infant who was diagnosed with a critical heart defect days after her birth.
Children’s National Innovation Ventures and APDI leaders saw the value in the Bloom Standard innovation: a device that enables autonomous, hands-free ultrasound scans to be performed anywhere, by any user. The FDA granted the innovation its breakthrough device designation to help streamline the regulatory process so that patients and healthcare providers have more timely access to devices.
Bloom Standard can potentially save lives and improve outcomes for newborns and babies with cardiac and respiratory issues. The technology can eliminate the delay that often occurs for infants who need ultrasound imaging because their medical location lacks the technology. Bloom Standard’s portability and ease of use can potentially reduce mortality and poor outcomes tied to delayed detection of lung and cardiac conditions. It has potential cost savings, too.
Children’s National supported this novel medical technology for children by engaging in multiple steps through the regulatory process:
Saarinen says she is grateful for the continuing relationship with Children’s National as her company enters its next phase on the journey to commercialization.
Children’s National Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer Kolaleh Eskandanian, Ph.D., MBA, PMP, who directs the FDA-funded Alliance for Pediatric Device Development, says that nurturing and supporting life-saving technologies like Bloom Standard is important because the device addresses a dire unmet need in the pediatric space, especially in settings with fewer resources and in public health emergency situations. “Advancements in children’s medical devices continue to lag behind those of adults, and we must use our research and innovation infrastructure to help close that gap and to influence policy changes.”
Catherine Limperopoulos, Ph.D., was drawn to understanding the developing brain, examining how early adverse environments for a mother can impact the baby at birth and extend throughout its entire lifetime. She has widened her lens – and expanded her team – to create the new Center for Prenatal, Neonatal & Maternal Health Research at Children’s National Hospital.
“Despite the obvious connection between mothers and babies, we know that conventional medicine often addresses the two beings separately. We want to change that,” said Dr. Limperopoulos, who also directs the Developing Brain Institute. “Given the current trajectory of medicine toward precision care and advanced imaging, we thought this was the right moment to channel our talent and resources into understanding this delicate and highly dynamic relationship.”
Since its establishment in July 2023, the new research center has gained recognition through high-impact scientific publications, featuring noteworthy studies exploring the early phases of human development.
Dr. Limperopoulos has been at the forefront of groundbreaking research, directing attention to the consequences of maternal stress on the unborn baby and the placenta. In addition, under the guidance of Kevin Cook, Ph.D., investigators published a pivotal study on the correlation between pain experienced by premature infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and the associated risks of autism and developmental delays.
Another area of research has focused on understanding the impact of congenital heart disease (CHD) on prenatal brain development, given the altered blood flow to the brain caused by these conditions during this period of rapid development. Led by Josepheen De Asis-Cruz, M.D., Ph.D., a research team uncovered variations in the functional connectivity of the brains of infants with CHD. In parallel, Nickie Andescavage, M.D., and her team employed advanced imaging techniques to identify potential biomarkers in infants with CHD, holding promise for guiding improved diagnostics and postnatal care. Separately, she is investigating the impact of COVID-19 on fetal brain development.
In the months ahead, the team plans to concentrate its efforts on these areas and several others, including the impact of infectious disease, social determinants of health and protecting developing brains from the negative impacts of maternal stress, pre-eclampsia and other conditions prevalent among expectant mothers.
Given its robust research plan and opportunities for collaboration, the center pulled together expertise from across the hospital’s faculty and has attracted new talent from across the country, including several prominent faculty members:
The new center brings together award-winning talent. This includes Yao Wu, Ph.D., who recently earned the American Heart Association’s Outstanding Research in Pediatric Cardiology award for her groundbreaking work in CHD, particularly for her research on the role of altered placental function and neurodevelopmental outcomes in toddlers with CHD. Dr. Wu became the third Children’s National faculty member to earn the distinction, joining an honor roll that includes Dr. Limperopoulos and David Wessel, M.D., executive vice president and chief medical officer.
Interim Chief Academic Officer Catherine Bollard, M.D., M.B.Ch.B., said the cross-disciplinary collaboration now underway at the new center has the potential to make a dramatic impact on the field of neonatology and early child development. “This group epitomizes the Team Science approach that we work tirelessly to foster at Children’s National,” Dr. Bollard said. “Given their energetic start, we know these scientists and physicians are poised to tackle some of the toughest questions in maternal-fetal medicine and beyond, which will improve outcomes for our most fragile patients.”
Five years ago, Cayden was born 6 weeks early weighing less than four pounds and at risk of dying from her critical congenital heart disease. Today, she’s a happy five-year-old who is excited to start kindergarten this fall.
Five years ago, Cayden was born 6 weeks early weighing less than four pounds and at risk of dying from her critical congenital heart disease. Today, she’s a happy five-year-old who is excited to start kindergarten this fall.
Early diagnosis of her hypoplastic right ventricle, double inlet left ventricle and critical coarctation of the aorta allowed for the team at Children’s National Hospital to create a careful plan for safe delivery and to offer an innovative hybrid HLHS surgical approach at the hospital within 24 hours after she was born.
“Truly in my own heart, I do not believe Cayden would be alive today without Dr. Yerebakan and those early hybrid procedures,” says her mom, Casey.
Can Yerebakan, M.D., associate chief of Cardiac Surgery, and Joshua Kanter, M.D., director of Interventional Cardiology, have performed more of these hybrid procedures together at Children’s National than just about anywhere else in the United States. And they are the only team in the country using a special toothpick-sized flexible stent in the ductus. They worked directly with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to bring these right-sized tiny stents to the U.S. from Europe.
Cayden was one of the first babies to benefit from this cutting-edge approach. In the five-plus years since then, more than 50 high-risk babies, some born as early as 28 weeks of gestation or weighing as little as 2 pounds at birth, have also benefited from hybrid procedures. Soon, the team will start performing hybrid procedures with catheters only, preventing an incision in the chest. This will allow the smallest babies to get the care they need with fewer open-chest procedures.
Read the rest of Cayden’s story here.
Explore some of the notable medical advancements and stories of bravery that defined 2023, showcasing the steadfast commitment of healthcare professionals at Children’s National Hospital and the resilient spirit of the children they support. Delve into our 2023 news highlights for more.
According to a study published in British Medical Journal Global Health, women who get COVID during pregnancy are nearly eight times more likely to die and face a significantly elevated risk of ICU admission and pneumonia. Sarah Mulkey, M.D., prenatal-neonatologist neurologist, discussed findings based on her work with pregnant women and their babies.
(Fortune)
A study led by Christopher Vaughan, Psy.D., pediatric neuropsychologist, suggests that — despite what many people may presume — getting kids back to school quickly is the best way to boost their chance for a rapid recovery after a concussion.
(CNN)
David Wessel, M.D., executive vice president, chief medical officer and physician-in-chief, explained that one reason parents were still having trouble getting their children beds in a pediatric hospital or a pediatric unit after the fall 2022 respiratory surge is that pediatric hospitals are paid less by insurance.
(CNN)
Anisha Abraham, M.D., M.P.H., chief of the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, joined America’s Newsroom to discuss the impact social media access has had on children’s mental health.
(FOX News)
After 13-year-old Antonio was nearly killed outside his mom’s apartment, Children’s National Hospital went beyond treating his bullet wounds. Read how our Youth Violence Intervention Program team supported him and his family during his recovery.
(The Washington Post)
Erin and Jade Buckles underwent a successful separation at Children’s National Hospital. Nearly 20 years later they returned to meet with some of the medical staff who helped make it happen.
(Good Morning America)
Shilpa Patel, M.D., M.P.H., medical director of the Children’s National IMPACT DC Asthma Clinic, weighed in on a letter published in Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, asserting that the disparities in mortality due to asthma in the United States vary based on whether they occurred in a hospital, ethnicity or race and age of the patient.
(Healio)
After one family embarked on a perilous journey from Afghanistan through Mexico to the U.S.-Mexico border, they eventually secured entry to the U.S. where Karen Smith, M.D., medical director of Global Services, aided the family’s transition and provided their daughter with necessary immediate medical treatment.
(NPR)
With the number of young people shot by guns on the rise in the U.S., providers and staff at Children’s National Hospital are trying to break the cycle of violence. But it’s not just the physical wounds though that need treating: young victims may also need help getting back on the right track — whether that means enrolling in school, finding a new group of friends or getting a job.
(BBC News)
Callie, a 6-year-old diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, was treated with low-intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU) at Children’s National Hospital and is the second child in the world to receive this treatment for a brain tumor. LIFU is an emerging technology that experts like Hasan Syed, M.D., and Adrianna Fonseca, M.D., are trialing to treat this fatal childhood brain tumor.
(The Washington Post)
The FDA approved a new genetic therapy, giving people with sickle cell disease new opportunities to eliminate their symptoms. David Jacobsohn, M.B.A., M.D., confirmed that Children’s National Hospital is one of the authorized treatment centers and talked about giving priority to the sickest patients if they are on Vertex’s list.
(The New York Times)
After the potential need for open-heart surgery threatened Caroline’s Nutcracker performance, Manan Desai, M.D., a cardiac surgeon, figured out a less invasive procedure to help reduce her recovery time so she could perform in time for the holidays.
(Good Morning America)
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to detect rheumatic heart disease (RHD) with the same accuracy as a cardiologist, according to new research demonstrating how sophisticated deep learning technology can be applied to this disease of inequity. The work could prevent hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths around the world annually.
Developed at Children’s National Hospital and detailed in the latest edition of the Journal of the American Heart Association, the new AI system combines the power of novel ultrasound probes with portable electronic devices installed with algorithms capable of diagnosing RHD on echocardiogram. Distributing these devices could allow healthcare workers, without specialized medical degrees, to carry technology that could detect RHD in regions where it remains endemic.
RHD is caused by the body’s reaction to repeated Strep A bacterial infections and can cause permanent heart damage. If detected early, the condition is treatable with penicillin, a widely available antibiotic. In the United States and other high-income nations, RHD has been almost entirely eradicated. However, in low- and middle-income countries, it impacts the lives of 40 million people, causing nearly 400,000 deaths a year.
“This technology has the potential to extend the reach of a cardiologist to anywhere in the world,” said Kelsey Brown, M.D., a cardiology fellow at Children’s National and co-lead author on the manuscript with Staff Scientist Pooneh Roshanitabrizi, Ph.D. “In one minute, anyone trained to use our system can screen a child to find out if their heart is demonstrating signs of RHD. This will lead them to more specialized care and a simple antibiotic to prevent this degenerative disease from critically damaging their hearts.”
The new AI system combines the power of novel ultrasound probes with portable electronic devices installed with algorithms capable of diagnosing RHD on echocardiogram.
Millions of citizens in impoverished countries have limited access to specialized care. Yet the gold standard for diagnosing RHD requires a highly trained cardiologist to read an echocardiogram — a non-invasive and widely distributed ultrasound imaging technology. Without access to a cardiologist, the condition may remain undetected and lead to complications, including advanced cardiac disease and even death.
According to the new research, the AI algorithm developed at Children’s National identified mitral regurgitation in up to 90% of children with RHD. This tell-tale sign of the disease causes the mitral valve flaps to close improperly, leading to backward blood flow in the heart.
Beginning in March, Craig Sable, M.D., interim division chief of Cardiology, and his partners on the project will implement a pilot program in Uganda incorporating AI into the echo screening process of children being checked for RHD. The team believes that a handheld ultrasound probe, a tablet and a laptop — installed with the sophisticated, new algorithm — could make all the difference in diagnosing these children early enough to change outcomes.
“One of the most effective ways to prevent rheumatic heart disease is to find the patients that are affected in the very early stages, give them monthly penicillin for pennies a day and prevent them from becoming one of the 400,000 people a year who die from this disease,” Dr. Sable said. “Once this technology is built and distributed at a scale to address the need, we are optimistic that it holds great promise to bring highly accurate care to economically disadvantaged countries and help eradicate RHD around the world.”
To devise the best approach, two Children’s National experts in AI — Dr. Roshanitabrizi and Marius George Linguraru, D.Phil., M.A., M.Sc., the Connor Family Professor in Research and Innovation and principal investigator in the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation — tested a variety of modalities in machine learning, which mimics human intelligence, and deep learning, which goes beyond the human capacity to learn. They combined the power of both approaches to optimize the novel algorithm, which is trained to interpret ultrasound images of the heart to detect RHD.
Already, the AI algorithm has analyzed 39 features of hearts with RHD that cardiologists cannot detect or measure with the naked eye. For example, cardiologists know that the heart’s size matters when diagnosing RHD. Current guidelines lay out diagnostic criteria using two weight categories — above or below 66 pounds — as a surrogate measure for the heart’s size. Yet the size of a child’s heart can vary widely in those two groupings.
“Our algorithm can see and make adjustments for the heart’s size as a continuously fluid variable,” Dr. Roshanitabrizi said. “In the hands of healthcare workers, we expect the technology to amplify human capabilities to make calculations far more quickly and precisely than the human eye and brain, saving countless lives.”
Among other challenges, the team had to design new ways to teach the AI to handle the inherent clinical differences found in ultrasound images, along with the complexities of evaluating color Doppler echocardiograms, which historically have required specialized human skill to evaluate.
“There is a true art to interpreting this kind of information, but we now know how to teach a machine to learn faster and possibly better than the human eye and brain,” Dr. Linguraru said. “Although we have been using this diagnostic and treatment approach since World War II, we haven’t been able to share this competency globally with low- and middle-income countries, where there are far fewer cardiologists. With the power of AI, we expect that we can, which will improve equity in medicine around the world.”
Advanced MRI visualization techniques to follow blood flow in the hearts of cardiac patients. Gene therapy for pediatric patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. 3D-printed casts for treating clubfoot. These were among the most popular articles we published on Innovation District in 2023. Read on for our full list.
Cardiac imaging specialists and cardiac surgeons at Children’s National Hospital are applying advanced magnetic resonance imaging visualization techniques to understand the intricacies of blood flow within the heart chambers of children with single ventricle heart defects like hypoplastic left heart syndrome. The data allows surgeons to make critical corrections to the atrioventricular valve before a child undergoes the single ventricle procedure known as the Fontan.
(3 min. read)
Children’s National Hospital became the first pediatric hospital to administer a commercial dose of Elevidys (delandistrogene moxeparvovec-rokl), the first gene therapy for the treatment of pediatric patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Elevidys is a one-time intravenous gene therapy that aims to delay or halt the progression of DMD by delivering a modified, functional version of dystrophin to muscle cells.
(2 min. read)
Researchers at Children’s National Hospital developed a pre-clinical model to test drugs and therapies for Becker Muscular Dystrophy (BMD), a debilitating neuromuscular disease that is growing in numbers and lacks treatment options. The work provides scientists with a much-needed method to identify, develop and de-risk drugs for patients with BMD.
(2 min. read)
In 2022, five newborns with life-threatening congenital heart disease affecting their heart rhythms were the first in the United States to receive a novel modified pacemaker generator to stabilize their heart rhythms within days of birth. Two of the five cases were cared for at Children’s National Hospital. In a follow-up article, the team at Children’s National shared that “early post-operative performance of this device has been excellent.”
(2 min. read)
Experts from the Food and Drug Administration, Pfizer, Oracle Health, NVIDIA, AWS Health and elsewhere came together to discuss how pediatric specialties can use AI to provide medical care to kids more efficiently, more quickly and more effectively at the inaugural symposium on AI in Pediatric Health and Rare Diseases, hosted by Children’s National Hospital and the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech.
(3 min. read)
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) named a 2019 study led by clinician-researchers at Children’s National Hospital one of the 12 most influential Pediatric Emergency Medicine articles ever published in the journal Pediatrics. The findings showed that states with stricter gun laws and laws requiring universal background checks for gun purchases had lower firearm-related pediatric mortality rates but that more investigation was needed to better understand the impact of firearm legislation on pediatric mortality.
(2 min. read)
Children’s National Hospital recently welcomed pediatric and adult colorectal surgeon Erin Teeple, M.D., to the Division of Colorectal and Pelvic Reconstruction. Dr. Teeple is the only person in the United States who is board-certified as both a pediatric surgeon and adult colorectal surgeon, uniquely positioning her to care for people with both acquired and congenital colorectal disease and help them transition from pediatric care to adult caregivers.
(3 min. read)
The sickle cell team at Children’s National Hospital received a grant from the Founders Auxiliary Board to launch a first-of-its-kind, personalized holistic transformative program for the management of pain in sickle cell disease. The clinic uses an inter-disciplinary approach of hematology, psychology, psychiatry, anesthesiology/pain medicine, acupuncture, mindfulness, relaxation and aromatherapy services.
(3 min read)
Non-invasive prenatal testing using cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is currently offered to all pregnant women regardless of the fetal risk. In a study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, researchers from Children’s National Hospital provided context and expert recommendations for maternal and fetal evaluation and management when cfDNA screening is positive for monosomy X or Turner Syndrome.
(2 min. read)
While clubfoot is relatively common and the treatment is highly successful, the weekly visits required for Ponseti casting can be a significant burden on families. Researchers at Children’s National Hospital are looking for a way to relieve that burden with a new study that could eliminate the weekly visits with a series of 3D-printed casts that families can switch out at home.
(1 min. read)
A new validated self-report tool provides researchers with a way to characterize the gender of research participants beyond their binary designated sex at birth. The multi-dimensional Gender Self-Report, developed using a community-driven approach and then scientifically validated, was outlined in a peer-reviewed article in the American Psychologist, a journal of the American Psychological Association.
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In a study published by Advances in Chronic Kidney Disease, a team at Children’s National Hospital reviewed cardiovascular and bone diseases in chronic kidney disease and end-stage kidney disease patients with a focus on pediatric issues and concerns.
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“Our goal is to do the difficult and the impossible,” says Yves d’Udekem, M.D., Ph.D.
“Our goal is to do the difficult and the impossible,” says Yves d’Udekem, M.D., Ph.D., chief of Cardiac Surgery at Children’s National Hospital.
Dr. d’Udekem and the cardiac surgeons at Children’s National apply technical skill and expertise to offer renewed hope for the highest risk children with critical congenital heart disease, including those with single ventricle anomalies like hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
“When families have nowhere else to turn, they can turn to us,” he adds.
The cardiac surgery team has welcomed families from across the United States and around the world who seek experts in the care of these critical heart conditions. Their experience is building an important evidence base for better surgical approaches that will improve long-term outcomes for children with many different types of congenital heart disease, but especially for single ventricle conditions.
“It’s time to combine firsthand expertise and long-term outcomes from decades of congenital heart surgical procedures to refine our surgical techniques,” says Dr. d’Udekem. “We need to ensure patients with congenital heart disease, especially those with single ventricle heart defects, can thrive long term.”
Soon, the Children’s National team plans to re-examine the effectiveness of different techniques for the Fontan procedure. They’ll compare an extracardiac approach against the older lateral tunnel procedure to determine how best to reduce long-term pressure on the heart by creating larger conduits and improving blood flow.
More education is needed to ensure valve repairs for children with congenital heart disease, including single ventricle conditions, which have a high rate of failure and require reoperation, are as successful as can be. The goal is to avoid the need for reoperation or replacement procedures. This is why Children’s National recently hosted the inaugural Valve Repair Symposium. It featured practical cases illustrated with intraoperative video, echocardiography and MR images to bring critical knowledge about pediatric heart valve repair to more people in the field.
Catherine Limperopoulos, Ph.D., Yao Wu, Ph.D., and David Wessel, M.D.
Children’s National Hospital is celebrating a remarkable milestone as three of its faculty members have been honored over 15 years with the American Heart Association’s Outstanding Research in Pediatric Cardiology Award. Yao Wu, Ph.D., became the latest researcher to earn the accolade for her groundbreaking work into congenital heart disease (CHD).
A research faculty member with the newly established Center for Prenatal, Neonatal & Maternal Health Research, Dr. Wu received the award specifically for her studies on the role of altered placental function, measured by advanced in utero imaging, and neurodevelopmental outcomes in toddlers with CHD.
Honored at the association’s annual meeting in Philadelphia, Dr. Wu returned to Children’s National to warm congratulations from her colleagues who had previously won the award: David Wessel, M.D., executive vice president and chief medical officer, and Catherine Limperopoulos, Ph.D., director of the new center.
“I am thrilled to pass the baton to one of our own,” Dr. Limperopoulos said. “Dr. Wu’s recognition speaks to the outstanding and innovative research happening at Children’s National among junior faculty who are focusing on advancing our understanding of congenital heart disease and its long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes.”
The prestigious award represents more than individual accomplishments; it symbolizes three generations of mentorship and collaboration at the hospital. In 2007, Dr. Wessel joined Children’s National to enhance the care of newborns across specialty services by expanding programs and research, with a focus on critically ill newborns with heart disease. He recruited and mentored Dr. Limperopoulos in 2010, who became one of his research partners and creator of the hospital’s Center for Prenatal, Neonatal & Maternal Health Research. Dr. Limperopoulos, in turn, recruited and mentored Dr. Wu, providing her with the tools to conduct advanced imaging on in-utero brains and placentas, as well as the development of children with CHD.
“Each one of us is in different phases of our careers, yet we are connected by our deep interest in advancing cardiac care for critically ill newborns,” Dr. Wessel said. “In this collaborative environment, we learn from each other to improve entire lifetimes for our patients.”
Dr. Wu said she believes in sharing scientific developments for the advancement of the entire medical community. “It was an honor to be chosen to join this esteemed club, which has a relentless focus on improving health outcomes,” she said.
The award winners shared five collaborations published in leading journals to contribute to the ongoing dialogue in the field and the innovative work happening at Children’s National:
The Congenital Heart Initiative (CHI) is celebrating its third year as the first global patient-powered registry for adults with congenital heart disease (CHD). In 2023, the registry surpassed recruitment targets and launched a data intake process to allow researchers from around the world to submit proposals for patient-centered research and programs around the critical questions for adults with CHD who had their hearts repaired in childhood.
By recruiting over 4,600 participants in all 50 states and 37 countries, the CHI is now the largest patient-powered registry for adults with congenital heart disease. This is the first time researchers and clinicians have been able to access this type of robust data set to help them better understand and address the needs of people with CHD as they continue to age. Even better, the registry’s mechanisms allow for routine feedback and input about priorities directly from the growing patient population.
“Patient-centered research organizations, not providers or universities, have the greatest ability to lead this charge and lay the foundation for future breakthroughs. The inspiring efforts of all participants to date gives me hope that the next generation of advances is within reach,” says Matthew Lewis, M.D., an adult congenital heart specialist and CHI-RON site PI from Columbia University Medical Center.
An ongoing sub-study of CHI uses PCORnet®, the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network, to better understand how gaps in care impact the adult patient experience with CHD. The CHI-RON study (PCORI RD-2020C2-20347) fills in these gaps by exploring three distinct data types: patient-reported outcomes, health insurance claims and electronic health records. The effort is led by Children’s National Hospital and Louisiana Public Health Institute.
This year, CHI also launched some of its first studies, focused on pregnancy, health disparities and long-term health care follow-ups. The first academic manuscripts about these studies are expected to publish in the next year.
Although nearly 2 million adults in the United States are living with a congenital heart defect — more adults than children in fact — it’s been historically difficult to gather data on these conditions and to identify patient needs.
As children born with CHD become adults, they have a lot of worry and uncertainty about their limitations and abilities to achieve what might be considered common adult milestones. The research made possible by this registry and the mechanisms to communicate findings to both the participants and the larger clinical community will make a big difference in quality of life and hope to provide more answers to these important questions.
The CHI related meetings have allowed a space where patients and researchers can come together to discuss research priorities.
“Once you go and look at things from the patient’s point of view, there is no going back. It is going to be something that will redefine you as a researcher and a provider,” says Rohan D’Souza, M.D., a maternal-fetal medicine specialist who is an active participant in a PCORI-funded maternal health consortium focused on reducing maternal morbidity and mortality in CHD patients (PCORI EACB-23293).
Additionally, because people with CHD live all over the United States and the world, it can be hard for them to connect with each other to share common questions and experiences with clinicians and each other. The patient-driven registry engages participants and hopes to help make greater connections between people who live with CHD. A key registry partner, the Adult Congenital Heart Association (ACHA), helps create opportunities, such as virtual Coffee Hours, for people in the registry to weigh in on research priorities and share feedback about CHI’s work.
“The ACHA Cafe was born out of a need for connection,” says Aliza Marlin, who founded and organized the café project on behalf of the ACHA. “A virtual social hour, coffee optional, gave the ACHD community a safe space to come together. Using it as a conduit to the Congenital Heart Initiative gave us an empowered voice in our own futures. It’s the perfect example of social connection leading to transformative possibilities.”
Anitha John, M.D., medical director of the Washington Adult Congenital Heart Program and an adult congenital cardiologist at Children’s National Hospital who leads CHI, says that the future looks bright for the registry and the vital information it can provide.
The new data intake process launched this year, she adds, gives anyone with an interest the ability to submit ideas for new grants, projects and studies. The team will also continue to engage with registry participants, researchers and the centers who provide care for people with CHD, all with the goal of finding more answers to the key questions about how to accomplish specific goals, such as improving mental health, the health care transition and overall quality of life for adults with CHD. For more information on how to get involved, please email ACHDresearch@childrensnational.org.
Cardiac surgeons at Children’s National Hospital have used a uniform transventricular strategy for tetralogy of Fallot repair for more than 15 years. A large, retrospective study published in the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery demonstrates that few patients who received a repair using this method required a reoperation to implant a pulmonary valve in the first 10 years after their primary repair surgery.
The study is one of the first to report statistically significant outcomes of the transventricular approach applied uniformly in a single institution. It provides tangible evidence of the short- and mid-term postoperative outcomes from 244 consecutive patients who underwent tetralogy of Fallot repair at Children’s National between 2004 and 2019. Infants received the repair between 42 and 106 days after birth.
Tetralogy of Fallot is a condition of several related congenital heart defects that occur due to abnormal development of the prenatal heart during the first eight weeks of pregnancy.
The data show that, at Children’s National, 96.7% of children who underwent tetralogy of Fallot repair within the first year of life using this transventricular approach were able to avoid having an additional surgery to receive a replacement pulmonary valve for up to a decade after their initial repair.
It also shows a benefit of this approach soon after birth. The authors believe that having the repair earlier (on average, 71 days after birth in this study) provides long-term benefits to the growth and development of both the brain and heart. The repair also protects the heart’s function over time by preventing the development of dangerous ventricular arrhythmias.
Short- and mid-term post-surgical outcome data like the information presented in this study are an important indicator of the expertise, care quality and overall safety associated with the cardiac surgery team performing the procedure.
These findings provide critical insight into the effectiveness of specific treatment approaches for infants with tetralogy of Fallot and can help both clinicians and families better understand the benefits and risks of these procedures.
Read the full study in the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.
The hospital will advocate for the unique needs of children as part of nationwide network working to accelerate transformative health solutions.
Children’s National Hospital was selected as a spoke for the Investor Catalyst Hub, a regional hub of ARPANET-H, a nationwide health innovation network launched by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).
The Investor Catalyst Hub seeks to accelerate the commercialization of groundbreaking and accessible biomedical solutions. It uses an innovative hub-and-spoke model designed to reach a wide range of nonprofit organizations and Minority-Serving Institutions, with the aim of delivering scalable healthcare outcomes for all Americans.
“The needs of children often differ significantly from those of adults. This partnership reflects our commitment to advancing pediatric healthcare through innovation and making sure we’re addressing those needs effectively,” said Kolaleh Eskandanian, Ph.D., M.B.A., vice president and chief innovation officer at Children’s National. “Leveraging the strength of this hub-and-spoke model, we anticipate delivering transformative solutions to enhance the health and well-being of the patients and families we serve.”
Children’s National joins a dynamic nationwide network of organizations aligned to ARPA-H’s overarching mission to improve health outcomes through the following research focus areas: health science futures, proactive health, scalable solutions and resilient systems. Investor Catalyst Hub spokes represent a broad spectrum of expertise, geographic diversity and community perspectives.
“Our spoke network embodies a rich and representative range of perspectives and expertise,” said Mark Marino, vice president of Growth Strategy and Development for VentureWell and project director for the Investor Catalyst Hub. “Our spokes comprise a richly diverse network that will be instrumental in ensuring that equitable health solutions reach communities across every state and tribal nation.”
As an Investor Catalyst Hub spoke, Children’s National gains access to potential funding and flexible contracting for faster award execution compared to traditional government contracts. Spoke membership also offers opportunities to provide input on ARPA-H challenge areas and priorities, along with access to valuable networking opportunities and a robust resource library.
Children’s National Hospital was awarded nearly $7.5 million in a five-year grant to continue its leadership of an FDA-funded pediatric device consortium. Building upon a decade of previous consortium leadership, the new consortium is Alliance for Pediatric Device Innovation (APDI) and features a new and expanded roster of partners that reflects its added focus on providing pediatric innovators with expert support on evidence generation, including the use of real-world evidence (RWE), for pediatric device development.
With the goal of helping more pediatric medical devices complete the journey to commercialization, APDI is led by Children’s National, with Kolaleh Eskandanian, Ph.D., M.B.A., vice president and chief innovation officer, serving as program director and principal investigator, and Julia Finkel, M.D., pediatric anesthesiologist and director of Pain Medicine Research and Development in the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation, serving as principal investigator.
Consortium members include Johns Hopkins University, CIMIT at Mass General Brigham, Tufts Medical Center, Medstar Health Research Institute and MedTech Color. Publicly traded OrthoPediatrics Corp., which exclusively focuses on advancing pediatric orthopedics, is serving as APDI’s strategic advisor and role model for device innovators whose primary focus is children.
Consortium initiatives got underway quickly with the announcement of a special MedTech Color edition of the “Make Your Medical Device Pitch for Kids!”™ competition that focuses on African American and Hispanic innovators. Interested innovators can find details and apply at MedTech Color Pitch Competition. The competition was announced at the recent MedTech Color networking breakfast on Oct. 10,2023 at The MedTech Conference powered by AdvaMed.
“We all benefit from greater equity and inclusion among pediatric MedTech founders, decision-makers, investigators and developers in more effectively addressing the needs of the entire pediatric population,” said Eskandanian. “We need the expertise and insights of innovators from diverse backgrounds, and we want to provide these talented individuals with more opportunities to present their work and share their perspectives on pediatric device development.”
APDI is one of five FDA-funded consortia created to provide a platform of services, expertise and funding to help pediatric innovators bring medical devices to the market that specifically address the needs of children.
Although entirely preventable, RHD, a disease of poverty and social disadvantage resulting in high morbidity and mortality, remains an ever-present burden in low- and middle-income countries, as well as rural, remote, marginalized and disenfranchised populations within high-income countries.
A rheumatic heart disease (RHD) work group convened by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) concludes that any priority intervention strategies to slow or stop late complications of RHD need to consider local contexts and should be integrated into health systems to meet the affected community’s needs in a sustainable way.
The group outlined priorities based on current available evidence to support the development and implementation of accessible, affordable and sustainable interventions in low-resource settings to manage RHD and its related complications.
Craig Sable, M.D., associate chief of Cardiology at Children’s National Hospital, served as a senior author on the recommendations, based on the work group findings.
Although entirely preventable, RHD, a disease of poverty and social disadvantage resulting in high morbidity and mortality, remains an ever-present burden in low- and middle-income countries, as well as rural, remote, marginalized and disenfranchised populations within high-income countries.
The NHLBI workshop sought to support RHD eradication efforts worldwide by:
Each work group was assigned to review existing guidelines and research for different stages of the disease’s progression, which is now being published together as a set of five companion articles to raise the prioritization of RHD research and funding.
Due to the high prevalence of RHD in low- and middle-income countries, Dr. Sable’s work group focused on gaining a better understanding of the needs in the field from the five perspectives: people living with RHD, the community, healthcare providers, health systems and policymakers.
They identified several priorities and strategies, and they stressed that any interventional strategy, now or in the future, must be culturally safe and community-driven to ensure the creation of a locally and culturally relevant, sustainable continuum of care for people from historically marginalized populations.
The authors emphasize that that over 300,000 deaths per year are the result of inadequate, underfunded and poorly integrated care. “Global vision and leadership to enact and implement available policies are needed to close large research gaps in all aspects at patient, health system and policy levels. Robust research and development are urgently needed to improve comprehensive tertiary care and ensure implementation of evidence-based interventions, while developing new innovations, technologies and interventions.”
You can read all the working group manuscripts, including this one: Tertiary Prevention and Treatment of Rheumatic Heart Disease: A National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Working Group Summary, in BMJ Global Health.
Learn more about the challenges of rheumatic heart disease in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing parts of the world through the Rheumatic Heart Disease microdocumentary series:
In their study, the team at Children’s National Hospital found that specific brain regions become especially vulnerable to injury around 24 weeks of pregnancy when developing babies begin to have high energy demands and rapid neurovascular changes.
For the first time, researchers have found that babies born with congenital heart disease (CHD) have alterations to the emerging functional connectivity of their brains in utero. The changes are related to the subtype of their CHD and their oxygen status before they have lifesaving surgery to treat their cardiac malformation, according to new findings published in the American Heart Association’s Circulation Research.
In their study, the team at Children’s National Hospital found that specific brain regions become especially vulnerable to injury around 24 weeks of pregnancy when developing babies begin to have high energy demands and rapid neurovascular changes. That leaves certain parts of the brain, including the brainstem, more susceptible to injury from cardiac complications and poor circulation.
“We used a special type of magnetic resonance imaging to safely study the brains of these unborn babies, and we found that they have weakened connectivity in the deep grey structures, which are responsible for sensation, movement, alertness and other core functions,” said Josepheen De Asis-Cruz, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor at the Developing Brain Institute at Children’s National and an author of the study. “This offers an important clue in utero to the type of care the babies will eventually need when they are born.”
In the past decade, the survival rate for fetuses with CHD has greatly improved. About 80% of cases – even some of the most high-risk heart defects – can be successfully treated or palliated with surgery and survive. Yet Dr. Cruz said researchers are finding that the rates of poor neurodevelopmental outcomes are about the same. That’s why she and her colleagues are looking at what precisely may be injuring the brains of these newborns prior to surgery, offering a possible roadmap to interventions.
The research team studied 107 healthy, low-risk pregnancies and 75 pregnancies known to be complicated by CHD. They used functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (fcMRI) to examine the emerging connections of the brains of unborn babies, given fcMRI’s unique ability to query the brain in a resting state when a patient is unable to respond to tasks. They also studied the oxygen saturation levels of the babies after they were born and then mapped all of this information to the type of CHD that they were diagnosed with.
“Our findings indicate that the compromised connectivity in the brains of CHD patients before delivery is linked to hypoxia after birth,” Cruz said. “There were important differences in the low- and high-risk CHD groups. Babies born with transposition of the great arteries or hypoplastic left heart syndrome – two of the most high-risk diagnoses – have notable changes in their brain function, which could someday be used as biomarkers to guide their care.”
Researchers at Children’s National are working together, using a variety of modalities, to move toward precision imaging in utero to help predict a child’s neurodevelopmental outcomes. The ultimate goal: better interventions sooner.
“This work is foundational. As we fine-tune more techniques to identify babies at risk, we can understand how environmental, genetic and epigenetic factors impact brain development and guide care decisions,” said Catherine Limperopoulos, Ph.D., director of the Center for Prenatal, Neonatal & Maternal Health Research and a senior author of the paper. “We can imagine a day where we can offer pregnant mothers highly detailed and personalized information about their unborn baby, and individualized interventions that lead to healthier lifetimes.”
