Dr. Eurgenie Heitmiller

The origins of a go-to perioperative crisis app

Dr. Eurgenie Heitmiller

Children’s Chief of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Dr. Heitmiller, was part of the team that originally launched the peer-reviewed perioperative crisis app, Pedi Crisis.

Around the same time that Atul Gawande and colleagues were developing adult operating room crisis checklists, a dedicated group of expert pediatric anesthesiologists were working on a set of checklists for pediatric specific, peer-reviewed algorithms to treat critical events in the perioperative setting.

Eugenie Heitmiller, M.D., chief of Anesthesiology, Pain and Perioperative Medicine at Children’s National Health System, was one of the initiators of what is known today as the Pedi Crisis App—a widely used reference tool designed to support clinician responses to life-threatening critical events.

Dr. Heitmiller and her colleagues on the Quality and Safety Committee of the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia (SPA) sought to create this series of standard algorithms that could be referenced both as teaching tools and as cognitive aids to be used in real time during rare critical occurrences in the perioperative setting.

“Most kids do well under anesthesia, but every once in a while, you have a child who has an event you don’t see that often, no matter how experienced you are,” she says. Having these checklists means we have a peer-reviewed, expert checklist at our fingertips.”

The original version of the checklists launched in 2010 as “Pediatric Critical Event Checklists”,  a Microsoft PowerPoint file that could be downloaded from the SPA website. Eventually, the checklists were adapted into an iPhone application as well as being translated into several languages.

Years after launch, these tools continue to be a mainstay for education, training, and critical event preparations for pediatric anesthesiologists and perioperative staff. A 2017 study found that in a three-month period of 2014, the app was accessed more than 4,000 times in 108 countries.

This year, the organizers of the joint SPA and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) meeting invited Dr. Heitmiller to moderate a panel that included talks on the launch of Pedi Crisis App 2.0 and its subsequent revisions. The newest edition of the Critical Events Checklists adds critical components including an updated smartphone app available for both the iPhone and Android, and the latest peer-reviewed content.

Pedi Crisis 2.0 also takes into account how people access and use the tool by incorporating elements that address human factors. The development team brought in  NASA senior research psychologist, Barbara Burian, Ph.D., to help make the content as intuitive as possible for quick access, accurate presentation, and recollection, even in a crisis. And, as Dr. Heitmiller points out, because pulling out a cell phone isn’t always the most realistic option in a sterile operating room environment, the content is always available for free outside of the mobile platform in a downloadable format on the SPA website so it can be accessed on any computer screen in any location.

Murray Pollack

Exploring accurate data use that supports clinical judgment

Murray Pollack

A new research collaboration between Children’s National Health System and KenSci seeks to understand how current data streams in health care can be used to enhance clinical decision making. The partnership seeks to develop personalized data-driven dynamic outcomes prediction for individual patients.

“These data are all around us in clinical medicine,” says Murray Pollack, M.D., MBA, of Children’s National Center for Translational Research. “Our goal for this project is to apply machine learning and statistical modeling to apply that data in ways that will enhance the work of the patient’s medical providers.”

“Since the mid-80s we have been able to predict mortality risks in pediatric ICUs using risk scores. In most cases these scores are used for quality assessment.,” Dr. Pollack continues. “Our collaborative goals are to study the temporal variation in data, taking the first step towards dynamic risk scoring for pediatric ICUs.”

“We see tremendous possibilities for how this wealth of data can be used safely and securely to supplement the clinician’s judgment,” says Hiroki Morizono, Ph.D., director of Biomedical Informatics at the Children’s National Center for Genetic Medicine Research. “This type of modeling, if successful, could perhaps predict an individual patient’s likelihood for deterioration or improvement.”

Over the course of one year, the two groups will come together and apply KenSci’s prediction platform to test different models and compare their accuracy to previous iterations developed at Children’s National.

Ankur Teredesai, KenSci’s co-founder, chief technology officer and professor at the University of Washington Tacoma, acknowledged the strategic nature of this collaboration, “Time is our best ally if integrated appropriately with other variables in healthcare machine learning and AI. Adding dynamism holds tremendous promise to be assistive for critical care. Caregivers in Pediatric ICUs serve the most vulnerable patients in our population, and this collaboration advances KenSci’s vision to be the best system of intelligence for healthcare.

Read KenSci’s press release about the partnership.

spectrometer output

Understanding low cardiac output after surgery

spectrometer output

Rafael Jaimes, Ph.D., created an algorithm that is being tested in a pre-clinical model to characterize the light absorbance spectrum from different heart regions using a spectrometer.

After intense cardiac surgery, sometimes a patient’s heart is unable to effectively deliver oxygenated blood and nutrients throughout the recovering body. Known as inadequate or low cardiac output, the condition occurs in about a quarter of patients following surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass, including young children who require complex procedures to correct congenital heart defects at Children’s National Health System.

Researchers at the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation are exploring several facets of this challenge, with the goal of better understanding post-operative recovery trajectories in pediatric patients. Rafael Jaimes, Ph.D., a staff scientist at the institute, leads this work to identify when and how low cardiac output occurs, pinpoint the physical hallmarks of this condition and use that information to prevent long term damage and complications after surgery, including cardiac arrest.

“More research needs to be done to understand the cause of this overarching and multi-faceted syndrome,” says Dr. Jaimes. “I’m interested in understanding how metabolic insufficiency contributes to this condition, and also exploring how we can use current imaging and diagnostic tools to measure, track and treat the insufficiencies that contribute to low cardiac output.”

Tracking inadequate oxygen and nutrient delivery to the parts of the heart that have been repaired is one avenue under exploration. Currently, a cardiac-specific real-time device to measure the oxygen state of the heart, while a patient is in post-operative critical care, is under development.

The heart’s complexity has made using current oxygen measurement devices, such as spectrometers, very difficult. To date no tool exists that effectively screens out artifacts and noise to allow clear visualization. However, during his post-doctoral work, Dr. Jaimes has created a new algorithm that may be the first of its kind to accomplish this feat.

This work on low cardiac output recently received a Congenital Heart Defect Research Award, which is a collaborative program of the Children’s Heart Foundation and the American Heart Association that supports innovative research, seeking to understand and treat congenital heart defects.

A new research study will build on his previous studies by using the algorithm to characterize the absorbance spectrum from different heart regions in a pre-clinical model. The data collected will serve as the baseline for development of a prototype spectrometer software, capable of tracking changes in heart oxygenation before, during and after surgery.

The end goal is to more effectively identify when parts of the heart are deprived of oxygen and nutrients and prevent resulting impacts on cardiac metabolism and output. Doing so will decrease short term mortality and morbidity and may also improve circulation systemically, potentially reducing long term health impacts of reduced oxygenation, such as neurodevelopmental disorders.

Children’s National ranked No. 6 overall and No. 1 for newborn care by U.S. News

Children’s National in Washington, D.C., is the nation’s No. 6 children’s hospital and, for the third year in a row, its neonatology program is No.1 among all children’s hospitals providing newborn intensive care, according to the U.S. News Best Children’s Hospitals annual rankings for 2019-20.

This is also the third year in a row that Children’s National has been in the top 10 of these national rankings. It is the ninth straight year it has ranked in all 10 specialty services, with five specialty service areas ranked among the top 10.

“I’m proud that our rankings continue to cement our standing as among the best children’s hospitals in the nation,” says Kurt Newman, M.D., President and CEO for Children’s National. “In addition to these service lines, today’s recognition honors countless specialists and support staff who provide unparalleled, multidisciplinary patient care. Quality care is a function of every team member performing their role well, so I credit every member of the Children’s National team for this continued high performance.”

The annual rankings recognize the nation’s top 50 pediatric facilities based on a scoring system developed by U.S. News. The top 10 scorers are awarded a distinction called the Honor Roll.

“The top 10 pediatric centers on this year’s Best Children’s Hospitals Honor Roll deliver outstanding care across a range of specialties and deserve to be nationally recognized,” says Ben Harder, chief of health analysis at U.S. News. “According to our analysis, these Honor Roll hospitals provide state-of-the-art medical expertise to children with rare or complex conditions. Their rankings reflect U.S. News’ assessment of their commitment to providing high-quality, compassionate care to young patients and their families day in and day out.”

The bulk of the score for each specialty is based on quality and outcomes data. The process also includes a survey of relevant specialists across the country, who are asked to list hospitals they believe provide the best care for patients with challenging conditions.

Below are links to the five specialty services that U.S. News ranked in the top 10 nationally:

The other five specialties ranked among the top 50 were cardiology and heart surgery, diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology and gastro-intestinal surgery, orthopedics, and urology.

Dr. Anitha John, third from right, director of the Washington Adult Congenital Heart Program, hosts the eighth-annual “Adult Congenital Heart Disease in the 21st Century” conference

CME spotlight: Treating adult congenital heart disease

Dr. Anitha John, third from right, director of the Washington Adult Congenital Heart Program, hosts the eighth-annual “Adult Congenital Heart Disease in the 21st Century” conference

Dr. Anitha John, third from right, director of the Washington Adult Congenital Heart Program, hosts the eighth-annual “Adult Congenital Heart Disease in the 21st Century” conference, which takes place Oct. 4-5, 2019.

A two-day continuing medical education (CME) conference for physicians and clinicians treating patients with adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) takes place Oct. 4-5, 2019, at the Bethesda Marriott in Bethesda, Maryland.

The eighth-annual conference, “Adult Congenital Heart Disease in the 21st Century,” hosted by Children’s National Health System and MedStar Washington Hospital Center provides a comprehensive review of the evaluation, diagnosis and management of ACHD, including guidelines to help ACHD patients manage a healthy pregnancy and clinical guidance about the progression of congenital heart disease (CHD) treatment from adolescence through adulthood.

Two tracks accommodate these themes, with the first focusing on a multidisciplinary approach clinicians can use to help ACHD patients assess risks for pregnancy complications, while planning and managing a healthy pregnancy, with input from cardiologists, anesthesiologists and maternal fetal medicine specialists. The second focuses on cardiac defects, starting with anatomical cardiac lessons with 3D heart models, then moves to imaging review, examining echocardiograms and MRI’s, and ends with clinical management review.

“This conference brings the best science and the most innovative approaches to treatment with questions doctors receive in the exam room,” says Anitha John, M.D., Ph.D., the conference organizer and director of the Washington Adult Congenital Heart program at Children’s National. “We’re inviting patients to join the afternoon of the second day of the CME conference again this year to support shared knowledge of these concepts, which supports lifelong treatment and education.”

Dr. John planned this year’s conference with the November 6 ACHD board exams in mind, integrating topics that will appear on the third ACHD certification exam issued by the American Board of Internal Medicine.

At this year’s CME conference, more than a dozen faculty members, including several physicians and nurses from Children’s National, will guide lectures to help attendees meet 13 objectives, from understanding the prevalence of congenital heart disease and its complications to learning about when surgical interventions and referrals to specialists are necessary.

Attendees will review new and innovative PAH therapies, mechanical support therapies, catheter-based interventional procedures and appraise the use of pacemaker and defibrillator therapy among adults with CHD.

Patients and families attending the patient sessions, held from 12:30 to 3:45 p.m. on Saturday, October 5, have a chance to participate in three sessions that support the medical and social needs of ACHD patients. Topics range from workshops that address the neurodevelopment and psychosocial factors of living with a congenital heart defect to sessions that focus on reproductive options for patients and personalized lifestyle recommendations, including fitness and exercise guidelines.

“To support cardiovascular health throughout the lifespan, it helps to educate patients about their heart’s structure and unique needs,” notes Dr. John. “We want to spark a dialogue now and have future conversations with patients, especially while they are young.”

The American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Clinical Practice Guidelines updated ACHD treatment recommendations in August 2018, the first time in 10 years, and many of these guidelines manifest as panel discussions and interactive lectures presented at the 2019 Adult Congenital Heart Disease in the 21st Century conference.

Attendees can receive up to 12.5 credits from the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, the American Nurses Credentialing Center and the American Academy of PAs.

Those interested in starting their own ACHD program can attend an evening symposium, entitled “ACHD Program Building 101,” hosted by representatives from the Mid-Atlantic ACHD Regional Group. Topics in the six-session panel range from managing ACHD patients in a pediatric hospital setting to the role of clinical nurse coordinators in ACHD care.

To learn more about or to register for the conference, visit CE.MedStarHealth.org/ACHD. You can also listen to an interview with Dr. Anitha John about the upcoming Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) conference.

NCC-PDI Pitch Winners

NCC-PDI announces medical device pitch winners

NCC-PDI Pitch Winners

Five pediatric medical device innovators each captured $50K in funding and access to a new pediatric device accelerator program in a competition hosted April 30, 2019 by National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation that focused on orthopedic and spine devices. Clockwise from front left: Kolaleh Eskandanian, Children’s National Health System; Cristian Atria, nView Medical; John Barrett, Auctus Surgical Inc.; Paul Mraz, ApiFix; Dan Sands, AMB Surgical II; Anuradha Dayal, BabySteps, Children’s National Health System; Paul Grand, MedTech Innovator; (center) Bill Bentley, Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices, University of Maryland.

The National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation (NCC-PDI) announced five winners of its “Make Your Medical Device Pitch for Kids!” competition held on April 30 at the University of Maryland. Each winner receives $50,000 in grant funding and gains access to the consortium’s first-of-its-kind “Pediatric Device Innovator Accelerator Program” led by MedTech Innovator.

NCC-PDI, one of five FDA Pediatric Device Consortia grant programs that support the development and commercialization of pediatric medical devices, is led by the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children’s National Health System and the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland. The consortium recently added new accelerators BioHealth Innovation and MedTech Innovator and design firm partner, Smithwise.

A panel of 32 expert judges from business, healthcare, regulatory and legal sectors selected the winners based on the clinical significance and commercial feasibility of their medical devices for children. The competition focused solely on advancing care in the pediatric orthopedics and spine sector which the FDA identified as an emerging underserved specialty lacking innovation.

The competition winners are:

  • AMB Surgical, LLC, Dayton, Ohio – FLYTE, a device designed to reduce invasive and repetitive surgery in children and teens with orthopedic illnesses such as scoliosis and limb abnormalities
  • Auctus Surgical, Inc., San Francisco, Calif. – Auctus Surgical Dynamic Spinal Tethering System, a mechanism used to correct the scoliotic spine in pediatric patients through a tethering procedure
  • ApiFix Ltd, Boston, Mass. – ApiFix’s Minimally Invasive Deformity Correction (MID-C) System, a posterior dynamic deformity correction system for surgical treatment to provide permanent spinal curve correction while retaining flexibility
  • Children’s National Health System, Washington, D.C.– Babysteps platform to improve initial assessment of clubfoot deformity and predict the magnitude of correction
  • nView Medical, Salt Lake City, Utah – Surgical scanner using AI-based image creation to provide instant 3D imaging during surgery to improve imagery speed and accuracy

“All finalists are winners and we believe that, with NCC-PDI’s support, some of the awarded devices will be available to orthopedic and spine clinicians in the near future. That is vitally important since innovation has been stagnant in this area,” says Kolaleh Eskandanian, Ph.D., MBA, PMP, vice president and chief innovation officer at Children’s National and principal investigator of NCC-PDI. “This competition aims to increase the profile of companies by exposing them to a panel of industry leaders who may become future investors or strategic partners.”

Through the inaugural NCC-PDI “Pediatric Device Innovator Accelerator Program,” MedTech Innovator is providing winners with virtual in-depth, customized mentorship from some of the industry’s leading executives and investors. MedTech Innovator has a proven track record of identifying early-stage medical device companies with the key characteristics required for commercial success and accelerating their growth through its vast ecosystem of resources.

“As a pediatric orthopedic surgeon, I am encouraged by the innovations presented at this competition,” says Matthew Oetgen, M.D., division chief of Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine at Children’s National, who served on the judging panel. “We need more devices that compensate for the smaller size of children compared to adults and that can adapt as children’s bones continue to grow and develop. The finalists who competed fully embraced that challenge.”

This was NCC-PDI’s eighth competition in six years and a ninth competition is planned for fall 2019 that focuses on NICU. Including this recent round of winners, the consortium has supported 94 pediatric medical devices and helped five companies receive FDA or CE mark regulatory clearance.

To learn more about the winners and the fall 2019 pitch competition, visit the National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation website.

Billie Lou Short and Kurt Newman at Research and Education Week

Research and Education Week honors innovative science

Billie Lou Short and Kurt Newman at Research and Education Week

Billie Lou Short, M.D., received the Ninth Annual Mentorship Award in Clinical Science.

People joke that Billie Lou Short, M.D., chief of Children’s Division of Neonatology, invented extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, known as ECMO for short. While Dr. Short did not invent ECMO, under her leadership Children’s National was the first pediatric hospital to use it. And over decades Children’s staff have perfected its use to save the lives of tiny, vulnerable newborns by temporarily taking over for their struggling hearts and lungs. For two consecutive years, Children’s neonatal intensive care unit has been named the nation’s No. 1 for newborns by U.S. News & World Report. “Despite all of these accomplishments, Dr. Short’s best legacy is what she has done as a mentor to countless trainees, nurses and faculty she’s touched during their careers. She touches every type of clinical staff member who has come through our neonatal intensive care unit,” says An Massaro, M.D., director of residency research.

For these achievements, Dr. Short received the Ninth Annual Mentorship Award in Clinical Science.

Anna Penn, M.D., Ph.D., has provided new insights into the central role that the placental hormone allopregnanolone plays in orderly fetal brain development, and her research team has created novel experimental models that mimic some of the brain injuries often seen in very preterm babies – an essential step that informs future neuroprotective strategies. Dr. Penn, a clinical neonatologist and developmental neuroscientist, “has been a primary adviser for 40 mentees throughout their careers and embodies Children’s core values of Compassion, Commitment and Connection,” says Claire-Marie Vacher, Ph.D.

For these achievements, Dr. Penn was selected to receive the Ninth Annual Mentorship Award in Basic and Translational Science.

The mentorship awards for Drs. Short and Penn were among dozens of honors given in conjunction with “Frontiers in Innovation,” the Ninth Annual Research and Education Week (REW) at Children’s National. In addition to seven keynote lectures, more than 350 posters were submitted from researchers – from high-school students to full-time faculty – about basic and translational science, clinical research, community-based research, education, training and quality improvement; five poster presenters were showcased via Facebook Live events hosted by Children’s Hospital Foundation.

Two faculty members won twice: Vicki Freedenberg, Ph.D., APRN, for research about mindfulness-based stress reduction and Adeline (Wei Li) Koay, MBBS, MSc, for research related to HIV. So many women at every stage of their research careers took to the stage to accept honors that Naomi L.C. Luban, M.D., Vice Chair of Academic Affairs, quipped that “this day is power to women.”

Here are the 2019 REW award winners:

2019 Elda Y. Arce Teaching Scholars Award
Barbara Jantausch, M.D.
Lowell Frank, M.D.

Suzanne Feetham, Ph.D., FAA, Nursing Research Support Award
Vicki Freedenberg, Ph.D., APRN, for “Psychosocial and biological effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction intervention in adolescents with CHD/CIEDs: a randomized control trial”
Renee’ Roberts Turner for “Peak and nadir experiences of mid-level nurse leaders”

2019-2020 Global Health Initiative Exploration in Global Health Awards
Nathalie Quion, M.D., for “Latino youth and families need assessment,” conducted in Washington
Sonia Voleti for “Handheld ultrasound machine task shifting,” conducted in Micronesia
Tania Ahluwalia, M.D., for “Simulation curriculum for emergency medicine,” conducted in India
Yvonne Yui for “Designated resuscitation teams in NICUs,” conducted in Ghana
Xiaoyan Song, Ph.D., MBBS, MSc, “Prevention of hospital-onset infections in PICUs,” conducted in China

Ninth Annual Research and Education Week Poster Session Awards

Basic and Translational Science
Faculty: Adeline (Wei Li) Koay, MBBS, MSc, for “Differences in the gut microbiome of HIV-infected versus HIV-exposed, uninfected infants”
Faculty: Hayk Barseghyan, Ph.D., for “Composite de novo Armenian human genome assembly and haplotyping via optical mapping and ultra-long read sequencing”
Staff: Damon K. McCullough, BS, for “Brain slicer: 3D-printed tissue processing tool for pediatric neuroscience research”
Staff: Antonio R. Porras, Ph.D., for “Integrated deep-learning method for genetic syndrome screening using facial photographs”
Post docs/fellows/residents: Lung Lau, M.D., for “A novel, sprayable and bio-absorbable sealant for wound dressings”
Post docs/fellows/residents: Kelsey F. Sugrue, Ph.D., for “HECTD1 is required for growth of the myocardium secondary to placental insufficiency”
Graduate students: Erin R. Bonner, BA, for “Comprehensive mutation profiling of pediatric diffuse midline gliomas using liquid biopsy”
High school/undergraduate students: Ali Sarhan for “Parental somato-gonadal mosaic genetic variants are a source of recurrent risk for de novo disorders and parental health concerns: a systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis”

Clinical Research
Faculty: Amy Hont, M.D., for “Ex vivo expanded multi-tumor antigen specific T-cells for the treatment of solid tumors”
Faculty: Lauren McLaughlin, M.D., for “EBV/LMP-specific T-cells maintain remissions of T- and B-cell EBV lymphomas after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation”

Staff: Iman A. Abdikarim, BA, for “Timing of allergenic food introduction among African American and Caucasian children with food allergy in the FORWARD study”
Staff: Gelina M. Sani, BS, for “Quantifying hematopoietic stem cells towards in utero gene therapy for treatment of sickle cell disease in fetal cord blood”
Post docs/fellows/residents: Amy H. Jones, M.D., for “To trach or not trach: exploration of parental conflict, regret and impacts on quality of life in tracheostomy decision-making”
Graduate students: Alyssa Dewyer, BS, for “Telemedicine support of cardiac care in Northern Uganda: leveraging hand-held echocardiography and task-shifting”
Graduate students: Natalie Pudalov, BA, “Cortical thickness asymmetries in MRI-abnormal pediatric epilepsy patients: a potential metric for surgery outcome”
High school/undergraduate students: Kia Yoshinaga for “Time to rhythm detection during pediatric cardiac arrest in a pediatric emergency department”

Community-Based Research
Faculty: Adeline (Wei Li) Koay, MBBS, MSc, for “Recent trends in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area”
Staff: Gia M. Badolato, MPH, for “STI screening in an urban ED based on chief complaint”
Post docs/fellows/residents: Christina P. Ho, M.D., for “Pediatric urinary tract infection resistance patterns in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area”
Graduate students: Noushine Sadeghi, BS, “Racial/ethnic disparities in receipt of sexual health services among adolescent females”

Education, Training and Program Development
Faculty: Cara Lichtenstein, M.D., MPH, for “Using a community bus trip to increase knowledge of health disparities”
Staff: Iana Y. Clarence, MPH, for “TEACHing residents to address child poverty: an innovative multimodal curriculum”
Post docs/fellows/residents: Johanna Kaufman, M.D., for “Inpatient consultation in pediatrics: a learning tool to improve communication”
High school/undergraduate students: Brett E. Pearson for “Analysis of unanticipated problems in CNMC human subjects research studies and implications for process improvement”

Quality and Performance Improvement
Faculty: Vicki Freedenberg, Ph.D., APRN, for “Implementing a mindfulness-based stress reduction curriculum in a congenital heart disease program”
Staff: Caleb Griffith, MPH, for “Assessing the sustainability of point-of-care HIV screening of adolescents in pediatric emergency departments”
Post docs/fellows/residents: Rebecca S. Zee, M.D., Ph.D., for “Implementation of the Accelerated Care of Torsion (ACT) pathway: a quality improvement initiative for testicular torsion”
Graduate students: Alysia Wiener, BS, for “Latency period in image-guided needle bone biopsy in children: a single center experience”

View images from the REW2019 award ceremony.

Beth Tarini

Getting to know SPR’s future President, Beth Tarini, M.D., MS

Beth Tarini

Quick. Name four pillar pediatric organizations on the vanguard of advancing pediatric research.

Most researchers and clinicians can rattle off the names of the Academic Pediatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Pediatric Society. But that fourth one, the Society for Pediatric Research (SPR), is a little trickier. While many know SPR, a lot of research-clinicians simply do not.

Over the next few years, Beth A. Tarini, M.D., MS, will make it her personal mission to ensure that more pediatric researchers get to know SPR and are so excited about the organization that they become active members. In May 2019 Dr. Tarini becomes Vice President of the society that aims to stitch together an international network of interdisciplinary researchers to improve kids’ health. Four-year SPR leadership terms begin with Vice President before transitioning to President-Elect, President and Past-President, each for one year.

Dr. Tarini says she looks forward to working with other SPR leaders to find ways to build more productive, collaborative professional networks among faculty, especially emerging junior faculty. “Facilitating ways to network for research and professional reasons across pediatric research is vital – albeit easier said than done. I have been told I’m a connector, so I hope to leverage that skill in this new role,” says Dr. Tarini, associate director for Children’s Center for Translational Research.

“I’m delighted that Dr. Tarini was elected to this leadership position, and I am impressed by her vision of improving SPR’s outreach efforts,” says Mark Batshaw, M.D., Executive Vice President, Chief Academic Officer and Physician-in-Chief at Children’s National. “Her goal of engaging potential members in networking through a variety of ways – face-to-face as well as leveraging digital platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn – and her focus on engaging junior faculty will help strengthen SPR membership in the near term and long term.”

Dr. Tarini adds: “Success to me would be leaving after four years with more faculty – especially junior faculty – approaching membership in SPR with the knowledge and enthusiasm that they bring to membership in other pediatric societies.”

SPR requires that its members not simply conduct research, but move the needle in their chosen discipline. In her research, Dr. Tarini has focused on ensuring that population-based newborn screening programs function efficiently and effectively with fewer hiccups at any place along the process.

Thanks to a heel stick to draw blood, an oxygen measurement, and a hearing test, U.S. babies are screened for select inherited health conditions, expediting treatment for infants and reducing the chances they’ll experience long-term health consequences.

“The complexity of this program that is able to test nearly all 4 million babies in the U.S. each year is nothing short of astounding. You have to know the child is born – anywhere in the state – and then between 24 and 48 hours of birth you have to do testing onsite, obtain a specific type of blood sample, send the blood sample to an off-site lab quickly, test the sample, find the child if the test is out of range, get the child evaluated and tested for the condition, then send them for treatment. Given the time pressures as well as the coordination of numerous people and organizations, the fact that this happens routinely is amazing. And like any complex process, there is always room for improvement,” she says.

Dr. Tarini’s research efforts have focused on those process improvements.

As just one example, the Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children, a federal advisory committee on which she serves, was discussing how to eliminate delays in specimen processing to provide speedier results to families. One possible solution floated was to open labs all seven days, rather than just five days a week. Dr. Tarini advocated for partnering with health care engineers who could help model ways to make the specimen transport process more efficient, just like airlines and mail delivery services. A more efficient and effective solution was to match the specimen pick-up and delivery times more closely with the lab’s operational times – which maximizes lab resources and shortens wait times for parents.

Conceptual modeling comes so easily for her that she often leaps out of her seat mid-sentence, underscoring a point by jotting thoughts on a white board, doing it so often that her pens have run dry.

“It’s like a bus schedule: You want to find a bus that not only takes you to your destination but gets you there on time,” she says.

Dr. Tarini’s current observational study looks for opportunities to improve how parents in Minnesota and Iowa are given out-of-range newborn screening test results – especially false positives – and how that experience might shake their confidence in their child’s health as well as heighten their own stress level.

“After a false positive test result, are there parents who walk away from newborn screening with lingering stress about their child’s health? Can we predict who those parents might be and help them?” she asks.

Among the challenges is the newborn screening occurs so quickly after delivery that some emotionally and physically exhausted parents may not remember it was done. Then they get a call from the state with ominous results. Another challenge is standardizing communication approaches across dozens of birthing centers and hospitals.

“We know parents are concerned after receiving a false positive result, and some worry their infant remains vulnerable,” she says. “Can we change how we communicate – not just what we say, but how we say it – to alleviate those concerns?”

ACC19 attendees from Children's National

ACC.19: A focus on pediatric cardiology

ACC19 attendees from Children's National

Dr. Gerard Martin, center, accepts an award before delivering the 2019 Dan G. McNamara Keynote lecture at ACC.19.

“Innovation meets tradition,” is how many attendees and journalists described the American College of Cardiology’s 68th Scientific Sessions (ACC.19), which took place March 16-18, 2019 in New Orleans, La.

Gerard Martin, M.D., F.A.A.P., F.A.C.C., F.A.H.A., a pediatric cardiologist and the medical director of Global Services at Children’s National, supported this narrative by referencing both themes in his 2019 Dan G. McNamara keynote lecture, entitled “Improved Outcomes in Congenital Heart Disease through Advocacy and Collaboration.” Dr. Martin highlighted advancements in the field of pediatric cardiology that took place over the past 15 years, while touting modern advancements – such as pulse oximetry screenings for critical congenital heart disease – that were a result of physician-led advocacy and collaboration.

Dr. Martin’s message was to continue to invest in research and technology that leads to medical breakthroughs, but to remember the power of partnerships, such as those formed by the National Pediatric Cardiology Quality Improvement Collaborative. These alliances, which generated shared protocols and infrastructure among health systems, improved interstage mortality rates between surgeries for babies born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

A dozen cardiologists and clinicians from the Children’s National Heart Institute also participated in CME panel discussions or delivered poster presentations to support future versions of this template, touching on early-stage innovations and multi-institution research collaborations. The themes among Children’s National Heart Institute faculty, presented to a diverse crowd of 12,000-plus professional attendees representing 108 countries, included:

Personalized guidelines:

  • Sarah Clauss, M.D., F.A.C.C., a cardiologist, presented “Unique Pediatric Differences from Adult Cholesterol Guidelines: Lipids and Preventive Cardiology,” before Charles Berul, M.D., division chief of cardiology and co-director of the Children’s National Heart Institute, presented “Unique Pediatric Differences from Adult Guidelines: Arrhythmias in Adults with Congenital Heart Disease,” in a joint symposium with the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology.
  • Berul, who specializes in electrophysiology, co-chaired a congenital heart disease pathway session, entitled “Rhythm and Blues: Electrophysiology Progress and Controversies in Congenital Heart Disease,” featuring components of pediatric electrophysiology, including heart block, surgical treatment of arrhythmias and sudden death risk.

Early detection:

  • Anita Krishnan, M.D., associate director of the echocardiography lab, presented “Identifying Socioeconomic and Geographic Barriers to Prenatal Detection of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome and Transposition of the Great Arteries” as a moderated poster in Fetal Cardiology: Quickening Discoveries.
  • Jennifer Romanowicz, M.D., a cardiology fellow, and Russell Cross, M.D., director of cardiac MRI, presented the “Neonatal Supraventricular Tachycardia as a Presentation of Critical Aortic Coarctation” poster in FIT Clinical Decision Making: Congenital Heart Disease 2.
  • Pranava Sinha, M.D., a cardiac surgeon, presented the poster “Neuroprotective Effects of Vitamin D Supplementation in Children with Cyanotic Heart Defects: Insights from a Rodent Hypoxia Model” in Congenital Heart Disease: Therapy 2.

Coordinated care:

  • Ashraf Harahsheh, M.D., F.A.C.C., F.A.A.P., a cardiologist with a focus on hyperlipidemia and preventive cardiology, co-presented an update about BMI quality improvement (Q1) activity from the American College of Cardiology’s Adult Congenital and Pediatric Quality Network – BMI Q1 leadership panel.
  • Niti Dham, M.D., director of the cardio-oncology program, and Deepa Mokshagundam, M.D., cardiology fellow, presented the poster “Cardiac Changes in Pediatric Cancer Survivors” in Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathies: Clinical 3.
  • Nancy Klein, B.S.N., R.N., C.P.N., clinical program coordinator of the Washington Adult Congenital Heart program at Children’s National, presented the poster “Improving Completion of Advanced Directives in Adults with Congenital Heart Disease” in Risks and Rewards in Adult Congenital Heart Disease.

Innovation:

  • Jai Nahar, M.D., a cardiologist, moderated “Future Hub: Augmented Cardiovascular Practitioner: Giving Doctors and Patients a New Voice.” The session focused on technical aspects of artificial intelligence, such as language processing and conversational artificial intelligence, as well as how applications are used in patient-physician interactions.
  • Nahar also participated in a key event on the Heart-to-Heart stage, entitled “Rise of Intelligent Machines: The Potential of Artificial Intelligence in Cardiovascular Care.”

“While I enjoyed the significant representation of Children’s National faculty at the meeting and all of the presentations this year, one research finding that I found particularly compelling was Dr. Krishnan’s poster about geographical disparities in detecting congenital heart disease,” says Dr. Berul. “Her research finds obstetricians providing care to women in the lowest quartile of socioeconomic areas were twice as likely to miss a diagnosis for a critical congenital heart defect during a fetal ultrasound, compared to obstetricians providing care for women in the highest quartiles.”

Dr. Krishnan’s study was the collaborative effort of 21 centers in the United States and Canada, and investigated how socioeconomic and geographic factors affect prenatal detection of hypoplastic left heart syndrome and transposition of the great arteries.

“We studied over 1,800 patients, and chose these diseases because they require early stabilization by a specialized team at a tertiary care center,” says Dr. Krishnan, who led the research in conjunction with the Fetal Heart Society Research Collaborative. “We hope that by understanding what the barriers are, we can reduce disparities in care through education and community-based outreach.”

Kinsley and Dr. Timothy Kane

Case study: Diagnosing a choledochal cyst in utero

Kinsley and Dr. Timothy Kane

The Feigel family worked with Timothy Kane, M.D., the division chief of general and thoracic surgery at Children’s National, to ensure an accurate diagnosis, coordinate a corrective procedure and support a strong recovery for Kinsley, who just celebrated a 5-month milestone.

On Sept. 30, 2018, Elizabeth Feigel gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Kinsley Feigel. Thirty-two days later, Elizabeth and her husband, Steven Feigel, delighted in another hospital moment: Kinsley, who developed a choledochal cyst in utero, was recovering from a surgical procedure to remove an abnormal bile duct cyst, which also required the removal of her gallbladder.

While the series of events, interspersed with multiple hospital visits, would likely create uneasiness in new parents, the Feigel family worked with Vahe Badalyan, M.D., a gastroenterologist at Children’s National Health System, and with Timothy Kane, M.D., the division chief of general and thoracic surgery at Children’s National, to ensure an accurate diagnosis, coordinate a corrective procedure and support a strong recovery for Kinsley, who just celebrated a 5-month milestone.

One of the keys to Kinsley’s success was close communication between her parents and providers.

Dr. Badalyan and Dr. Kane listened to Elizabeth and Steven’s concerns, explained complex medical terms in lay language, and provided background about Kinsley’s presenting symptoms, risk factors and procedures. Instead of second-guessing the diagnosis, Elizabeth and Steven put their trust into and remained in contact with the medical team, sharing updates about Kinsley at home. This parent-physician partnership helped ensure an accurate diagnosis and tailored treatment for Kinsley.

Here is her story.

An early diagnosis

During a 12-week prenatal ultrasound, Elizabeth discovered that Kinsley had an intra-abdominal cyst. Before Elizabeth came to Children’s National for an MRI, she met with several fetal medicine specialists and had a variety of tests, including an amniocentesis to rule out chromosomal abnormalities, such as Down syndrome.

The team at Children’s National didn’t want to prematurely confirm Kinsley’s choledochal cyst in utero, but additional ultrasounds and an MRI helped narrow the diagnosis to a few conditions.

After Kinsley was born, and despite looking like a healthy, full-term baby, she was transported to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Children’s National. Dr. Badalyan and Dr. Kane analyzed Kinsley’s postnatal sonogram and found the cyst was bigger than they previously thought. Over a five-day period, the medical team kept Kinsley under their close watch, running additional tests, including an additional sonogram. They then followed up with Kinsley on an outpatient basis to better understand and diagnose her cyst.

Outpatient care

Over the next few weeks, Kinsley, Elizabeth and Steven returned to Children’s National to coordinate multiple exams, ranging from an MRI to a HIDA scan. During this period, Elizabeth and Steven remained in contact with Dr. Badalyan. They heard about Kinsley’s lab results and sent updates about her symptoms, including her stool, which helped the medical team monitor her status.

Meanwhile, Dr. Badalyan and Dr. Kane worked closely with the lab to measure Kinsley’s bilirubin levels. Her presenting symptoms and risk factors, she had jaundice and is a female baby of Asian descent, are associated with both choledochal cysts and biliary atresia.

Over time and with the help of Elizabeth, Steven and the pediatric radiologists, Dr. Badalyan and Dr. Kane confirmed Kinsley had a type 1 choledochal cyst, the most common. Originally, the plan was to operate at three to six months, but Dr. Kane needed to expedite the procedure and operate on Kinsley at one month due to a rise in her bilirubin, a sign of progressive liver disease.

Higher bilirubin levels are common in newborns and remain elevated at about 5 mg/dL after the first few days of birth, but Kinsley’s levels peaked and remained elevated. Instead of her bile flowing into her intestine, her choledochal cyst reduced the flow of bile, which accumulated and started to pour back into her liver. The timing of the surgery was as important as the procedure.

The surgery

On Oct. 31, Halloween, Kinsley had laparoscopic surgery to remove the choledochal cyst. Approximately five to seven patients per year undergo choledochal cyst removal at Children’s National. Smaller infants typically undergo removal of a choledochal cyst using a large incision (or open procedure). Kinsley was the smallest baby at Children’s National to have this type of surgery performed by minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery, which required a few 3-mm incisions – the size of coriander seeds.

Some hospitals use the da Vinci robot, which starts at 8-mm incisions, the size of a small pearl, to conduct this procedure on infants, but this method cannot effectively be done in very small infants. Instead, Dr. Kane prefers to stitch sutures by hand. This technique keeps the incisions small and is technically demanding, but Dr. Kane doesn’t mind (he views this as an advanced technical skill). The goal for this surgery was to cut out the abnormal piece of Kinsley’s common bile duct, comprised of the cyst, remove  this and then sew the bile duct to the small intestine (duodenum), creating a digestive pathway. The new digestive tube allows for bile to flow from her liver through the common hepatic duct, in place of the pathway where the cyst formed, and into her intestine.

Like other surgeries, Dr. Kane needed to adapt the procedure, especially with Kinsley’s size: Taking too much from the bile duct would create a tight space, and could create obstruction, blocking bile, while leaving too much room could create leakage and spilling of the bile, requiring a follow-up surgical procedure within a week or two of the original operation.

Dr. Kane had a few options in mind before he operated. He didn’t know which would be most suitable until the operation, but he remained open and prepared for all three. Adopting this mindset, instead of having one procedure in mind, has helped Dr. Kane with precise and tailored surgeries, which often result in the best procedure and a stronger recovery period for young patients.

After 4.5 hours, the surgery, a two-part procedure – removing the cyst and recreating a functional bile duct – was complete.

Kinsley moved into the recovery unit, where she rested and recovered under close medical supervision for five days. During the first few days, she didn’t have liquids or milk, but she did have two bedside nurses monitoring her status in addition to surgeons making regular rounds. Elizabeth and Steven were relieved: The diagnosis and surgery were over.

Managing risk factors

Before Kinsley left the hospital, Elizabeth and Steven scheduled a follow-up visit to ensure Kinsley was recovering well and avoided risk of infection, such as cholangitis, which can occur suddenly and become chronic.

Following Kinsley’s post-surgical bloodwork in early November, Dr. Badalyan noticed Kinsley’s white blood count was high, signaling infection, and he immediately brought the family back to the hospital. To help her body fight the infection, Kinsley received antibiotics and intravenous fluids. She stayed in the hospital for five days. Fortunately, cholangitis is easy to treat with antibiotics; the key is to detect it early.

Kinsley returned home in time for Thanksgiving. She came back to the hospital for biweekly visits. At this point, she was filling out, reaching a 2-month milestone and nearing a full recovery. She returned for follow-up visits in December and January – and has been healthy ever since. She will continue to make routine visits during her first year to ensure her white blood count remains in a healthy range.

Investing in youth resilience

Dr. Badalyan and Dr. Kane envision a healthy future for Kinsley. They don’t expect she’ll need additional operations. Her parents are also looking on the bright side: Since gallbladders aren’t essential for survival or long-term health outcomes, and since many people can easily live without them, Kinsley may be at an advantage. Elizabeth thinks Kinsley may be more cautious about lifestyle choices to support living without a gallbladder, which also support longevity.

Another perspective noted by Dr. Badalyan and Dr. Kane is Kinsley’s resilience factor. Having the surgery earlier brought unique challenges, but her age makes it easier for Kinsley to bounce back as her body rapidly develops. Her tissues were healthy, compared to adult patients undergoing surgery with chronic liver problems or heart disease, which puts her at an advantage for a faster healing process. Dr. Badalyan also mentions that while it’s good for her Kinsley and her family to continue to monitor risks for infections, she won’t have gallstones.

Elizabeth also started to notice something that Kinsley’s doctors likely wouldn’t pick up on: Her personality seems to be a result of her hospital experience and stay. Kinsley’s an easy baby. She eats well and sleeps well, which Elizabeth credits to being around clinicians and to learning the art of self-soothing, a skill she likely acquired while recovering from surgery.

This month, Kinsley has another adventure. She’ll travel with her parents to visit extended family in Seattle, Napa Valley, Calif. and West Virginia. She has several relatives and family friends, all of whom are looking forward to meeting her.

The traction sisters

Spinal-halo-gravity traction times three

The traction sisters

Three girls received spinal-halo-gravity traction at the same time at Children’s National prior to surgery for acute idiopathic scoliosis.

Washington, D.C.’s ABC affiliate, WJLA, recently featured a story about three girls who received treatment for acute idiopathic scoliosis through the Children’s National Spinal Fusion Surgical Home, a comprehensive and effective program that has demonstrated reductions in pain medication usage and medical stays following posterior spinal fusion surgery.

All three girls had extremely severe curvatures of the spine requiring a month long inpatient stay for spinal halo-gravity traction prior to surgical intervention. Spinal curves severe enough to require traction are rare, and often impede a child’s quality of life just as severely – eating, breathing and moving are difficult. Given the long hospital stay required and the challenges of asking a child to stay in a traction frame 23 hours out of every day, the orthopaedic surgery team tries to coordinate cases so that when possible, patients can support each other throughout the process. This was the first time, however, that the team had three traction patients on similar trajectories on the unit at the same time.

Spinal halo-gravity traction can reduce the degree of surgical intervention necessary by accomplishing some pre-operative gradual straightening of the spine prior to spinal fusion procedures. For severe spinal deformities this has been shown to improve the safety and effectiveness of the final surgical procedure.

Dr. Michael Hsieh's clay shield

Innovative urologist Michael Hsieh takes unbeaten path

Dr. Michael Hsieh's clay shield

For an elementary school art project, Michael H. Hsieh, M.D., Ph.D., was instructed to fashion a coat of arms out of clay. In addition to panels for truth, justice and Taiwan, in the shield’s M.D. panel, a snake twists around a rod, like the staff for Asclepius, a Greek god associated with healing.

Children’s urologist Michael H. Hsieh, M.D., Ph.D., knew from age 10 that he would become a doctor. Proof is at his parents’ home. For an elementary school art project, students were instructed to fashion a coat of arms out of clay. In addition to panels for truth, justice and Taiwan, in the shield’s M.D. panel, a snake twists around a rod, like the staff for Asclepius, a Greek god associated with healing.

“I liked science. When I can use it to help patients, that is very rewarding,” says Dr. Hsieh, the first doctor in his family.

These days, Dr. Hsieh’s Twitter profile serves as a digital coat of arms, describing him as “tinker, tailor,” #UTI #biologist, epithelial #immunologist, helminthologist and #urologist.

Tinker/tailor is shorthand for the mystery drama, “Tinker Tailor Solider Spy,” he explains, adding that the “tinker” part also refers “to the fact that I am always questioning things, and science is about experimentation, trying to seek answers to questions.”

While still in medical school during a rotation Dr. Hsieh saw a bladder operation on a young child and thought it was “amazing.” That experience in part inspired Dr. Hsieh to become a urologist and bladder scientist. His training in immunology and study of the bladder naturally led him to study urinary tract infections and parasitic worms that affect the urinary tract. In addition, thanks to R01 funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Hsieh is co-principal investigator with Axel Krieger, University of Maryland, and Jin U. Kang, Johns Hopkins, on a project to develop imaging robots for supervised autonomous surgery on soft tissue.

The $1 million in NIH funding pushes the boundaries on amazing by using multi-spectral imaging technology and improved techniques to reduce surgical complications.

Anastomosis is a technique used by surgeons to join one thing to another, whether it’s a vascular surgeon suturing blood vessels, an orthopedic surgeon joining muscles or a urologist stitching healthy parts of the urinary tract back together. Complications can set in if their stitching is too tight, prompting scar tissue to form, or too loose, letting fluid seep out.

“The human eye can see a narrow spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. These multi-spectral imaging cameras would see across greater set of wavelengths,” he says.

The project has three aims: figuring out the best way to place sutures using multi-spectral imaging, accurately tracking soft tissue as they model suturing and comparing the handicraft of a robot against anastomosis hand-sewn by surgeons.

“I like challenges, and I like new things. I am definitely not interested in doing permutations of other people’s work,” Dr. Hsieh explains. “I would much rather go on a path that hasn’t been tread. It is more difficult in some ways, but on a day-to-day basis, I know I am making a contribution.”

In another innovative research project, Dr. Hsieh leveraged a protein secreted by a parasitic worm, Schistosoma haematobium, that suppresses inflammation in hosts as a new therapeutic approach for chemotherapy-induced hemorrhagic cystitis, a form of inflammation of the bladder.

Watching his first surgery nearly 30 years ago, he had no idea robots might one day vie to take over some part of that complicated procedure, or that parasite proteins could be harnessed as drugs. However, he has a clear idea which innovations could be on the horizon for urology in the next three decades.

“My hope is 30 years from now, we will have a solid UTI vaccine and more non-antibiotic therapies. UTIs are the second-most common bacterial infection in childhood and, in severe cases, can contribute to kidney failure,” he says.

Globally, parasitic worms pose an ongoing challenge, affecting more than 1 billion worldwide – second only to malaria. People persistently infected by schistosome worms fail to reach their growth potential, struggle academically and lack sufficient energy for exercise or work.


“There is a feeling that the infection prevalence might be decreasing globally, but not as quickly as everyone hopes. In 30 years perhaps with more mass drug administration and additional drugs – including a vaccine – we’ll have it close to eliminated globally. It would become more like polio, casting a slim shadow with small pockets of infection here or there, rather than consigning millions to perpetual poverty.”

Pedbot video game

Pedbot’s next step – Home-based therapy

Pedbot video game

Pedbot’s home version adapts the same airplane-themed video game to a smaller therapeutic platform that is more affordable to build.

The novel ankle rehabilitation robot built at Children’s National to help children with cerebral palsy build ankle strength and control through video gaming is taking a big step forward. Engineers have created a smaller, more affordable version of the robotic platform using 3D printed parts, to explore the effectiveness of a home-based therapy program.

“We’re seeing preliminary success in our trial for in clinic use of the Pedbot. Now we’re hoping to see if making the technology accessible at home means that 1) Kids use it more often and 2) More frequent, regular use over time leads to better range of motion,” says Kevin Cleary, Ph.D., the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation’s bioengineering technical director and engineering lead for Pedbot.

Pedbot’s video game, designed by software engineer Hadi Fooladi, M.S., allows kids to pilot an airplane through a series of hoops at varying speeds as determined by the therapist and programmer. The game isn’t the only thing that’s unique about this therapeutic robot, however.

Just like the clinic version, the home model moves in three translational directions (x, y and z) and rotates about three axes (the x, y and z axes), similar to the movement of a flight simulator. The result is a robot that helps the patient exercise across a greater range of motion and build muscle strength in a way that more closely mimics real-life ankle function.

Pedbot Home potentially eliminates an additional major therapeutic barrier – the clinic appointment.

“The great thing about Pedbot is you’re constantly working to reach a moving target, and the therapist can vary the movement type as much or as little as needed for each patient,” says Catherine Coley, DPT, a physical therapist at Children’s National who is a member of the Pedbot development team. “We think the home version might make it easier for the child to succeed with a long term therapy program by removing the need for repeat clinic visits.”

“What if a child could come home from school and do their therapy at home after dinner? Would doing it every day for 20 minutes benefit the child more than just coming to see us once or twice a week for an hour? Can we make it easier for our patients to cooperate and follow through with therapy homework? These are some of the questions that we hope we can answer during our trial for the home version,” says Sally Evans, M.D., division chief of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine at Children’s National and clinical lead for the project.

The cross-functional Pedbot team includes engineers Reza Monfaredi Ph.D. and Tyler Salvador, B.S., as well as additional physical therapists, Stacey Kovelman, P.T. and Justine Belchner, P.T., and Sara Alyamani, B.A. Future expansions will include the addition of electromyography measurements in collaboration with Paola Pergami, M.D., Ph.D. and incorporation of other patient populations with Beth Wells, M.D.

Pedbot Home is currently being piloted in the home setting, with the goal of enrolling additional families to participate in a trial within the next year. The work is supported by a $500,000 federal grant from the Department of Health and Human Services’ National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research.

surgical theater

Virtual reality allows surgical planning from every angle

surgical theater

The virtual reality surgical system projects images into the operating room, allowing neurosurgeons to revisit the surgical plan in real time.

Neurosurgeons at Children’s National Health System are getting a new three-dimensional (3D) perspective on their cases thanks to an FDA-approved breakthrough virtual reality surgical system.

Children’s National is the first pediatric health system in metropolitan Washington, D.C., to use this state-of-the art system, created by Surgical Theater. It seamlessly integrates patient-specific surgical planning and navigation, professional education and rehearsal.

The technology acquisition was made possible through a generous gift from Sidney & Phyllis Bresler, in honor of their children Alex, Jonathan and Amanda and grandson Theo Charles Bresler, and in loving memory of Joshua Stouck.

“Virtual reality modeling enables us to further explore, analyze and find the best approach for each unique surgical procedure,” said Children’s National President and CEO Kurt Newman, M.D. “This generous gift from Sidney & Phyllis Bresler should translate into better outcomes for many of the more than 17,500 patients who receive surgery at our hospital each year, and will benefit generations to come. We are deeply grateful for the Breslers’ commitment to pediatric innovation.”

The 3D, 360-degree view gives surgeons a cutting-edge digital tool to plan procedures in depth using an accurate capture of the patient’s unique anatomy, and also allows the surgeon to illustrate the surgical path in greater detail than ever before for patients and their families.

“Technology such as Surgical Theater’s represents a quantum leap for neurosurgeons, both in and out of the operating room,” said Robert Keating, M.D., chief of Neurosurgery at Children’s National, in a press release from the company. “It allows us to marry state-of-the-art 3D simulation to the real world; for the patient and family as well as doctors in training, and ultimately offers a new tool for the neurosurgical armamentarium in approaching complex lesions in the brain, such as AVM’s, tumors, epilepsy and functional cases.”

Karun-Sharma-and-kids-MR-HIFU

Clinical Trial Spotlight: Treating tumors with ThermoDox® and MR-HIFU

Karun Sharma, M.D., is working with AeRang Kim, M.D., Ph.D., to evaluate the use of ThermoDox®, a heat-activated chemotherapy drug, in combination with noninvasive magnetic resonance-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound (MR-HIFU) to treat refractory or relapsed solid tumors in children and young adults.

A Phase I Study of Lyso-thermosensitive Liposomal Doxorubicin (LTLD, ThermoDox®) and Magnetic Resonance-Guided High Intensity Focused Ultrasound for Relapsed or Refractory Solid Tumors in Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults.

This study is looking to determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) and recommended phase 2 dose (RP2D) of lyso-thermosensitive liposomal doxorubicin (LTLD), a heat-activated formulation of liposomal doxorubicin with unique property of heat-activated release of doxorubicin, administered in combination with magnetic resonance-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound (MR-HIFU) in children with relapsed/refractory solid tumors.

MR-HIFU is an innovative device that provides precise and controlled delivery of heat inside a tumor using an external applicator. Unlike other heating systems used in local therapy, MR-HIFU is entirely non-invasive and does not use any radiation. Integration of MR imaging allows for real-time temperature monitoring for accurate and precise targeting of tumors. LTLD is a novel formulation of doxorubicin with the unique property of heat-activated release. This selective drug delivery mechanism allows for local and rapid release of doxorubicin in high concentrations in tumors when heated. This novel combination may potentiate known effective therapy to improve local control and drug delivery without increasing toxicity.

Children’s National Health System and Celsion Corp, a leading oncology drug-development company, were the first to launch a clinical study in the U.S. that evaluates the use of ThermoDox® with MR-HIFU. Learn more about the clinical trial.

For more information about this trial or other trials available at Children’s National, contact:

Melissa Salerno
Clinical Research Program Manager
202-476-2142
msalerno@childrensnational.org

View more open phase 1 and phase 2 cancer clinical trials at Children’s National.

The Children’s National Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders is committed to providing the best care for pediatric patients. Our experts play an active role in innovative clinical trials to advance pediatric cancer care. We offer access to novel trials and therapies, some of which are only available here at Children’s National. With research interests covering nearly aspect of pediatric cancer care, our work is making great advancements in childhood cancer.

Nobuyuki Ishibashi

Cortical dysmaturation in congenital heart disease

Nobuyuki Ishibashi

On Jan. 4, 2019, Nobuyuki Ishibashi, M.D., the director of the Cardiac Surgery Research Laboratory and an investigator with the Center for Neuroscience Research at Children’s National Health System, published a review in Trends in Neurosciences about the mechanisms of cortical dysmaturation, or disturbances in cortical development, that can occur in children born with congenital heart disease (CHD). By understanding the early-life impact and relationship between cardiac abnormalities and cortical neuronal development, Dr. Ishibashi and the study authors hope to influence strategies for neonatal neuroprotection, mitigating the risk for developmental delays among CHD patients.

Dr. Ishibashi answers questions about this review and CHD-neurodevelopmental research:

  1. Tell us more about your research. Why did you choose to study these interactions in this patient population?

My research focuses on studying how CHD and neonatal cardiac surgery affect the rapidly-developing brain. Many children with CHD, particularly the most complex anomalies, suffer from important behavioral anomalies and neurodevelopmental delays after cardiac surgery. As a surgeon scientist, I want to optimize treatment strategy and develop a new standard of care that will reduce neurodevelopmental impairment in our patients.

  1. How does this study fit into your larger body of work? What are a few take-home messages from this paper?

Our team and other laboratories have recently identified a persistent perinatal neurogenesis that targets the frontal cortex – the brain area responsible for higher-order cognitive functions. The main message from this article is that further understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying cortical development and dysmaturation will likely help to identify novel strategies to treat and improve outcomes in our patients suffering from intellectual and behavioral disabilities.

  1. What do you want pediatricians and researchers to know about this study? Why is it important right now?

Although the hospital mortality risk is greatly reduced, children with complex CHD frequently display subsequent neurological disabilities affecting intellectual function, memory, executive function, speech and language, gross and fine motor skills and visuospatial functions. In addition to the impact of the neurological morbidity on the patients themselves, the toll on families and society is immense. Therefore it is crucial to determine the causes of altered brain maturation in CHD.

  1. How do you envision this research influencing future studies and pediatric health outcomes? As a researcher, how will you proceed?

In this article we placed special emphasis on the need for well-designed preclinical studies to define disturbances in cortical neurogenesis due to perinatal brain injury. I believe that further study of the impact of hypoxemia on brain development is of broad relevance — not just for children with congenital heart disease, but for other populations where intellectual and behavioral dysfunctions are a source of chronic morbidity, such as survivors of premature birth.

  1. What discoveries do you envision being at the forefront of this field?

One of the important questions is: During which developmental period, prenatal or postnatal, is the brain most sensitive to developmental and behavioral disabilities associated with hypoxemia? Future experimental models will help us study key effects of congenital cortical development anomalies on brain development in children with CHD.

  1. What impact could this research make? What’s the most striking finding and how do you think it will influence the field?

Although cortical neurogenesis at fetal and adult stages has been widely studied, the development of the human frontal cortex during the perinatal period has only recently received greater attention as a result of new identification of ongoing postnatal neurogenesis in the region responsible for important intellectual and behavioral functions. Children’s National is very excited with the discoveries because it has opened new opportunities that may lead to regeneration and repair of the dysmature cortex. If researchers identify ways to restore endogenous neurogenic abilities after birth, the risk of neurodevelopment disabilities and limitations could be greatly reduced.

  1. Is there anything else you would like to add that we didn’t ask you about? What excites you about this research?

In this article we highlight an urgent need to create a truly translational area of research in CHD-induced brain injury through further exploration and integration of preclinical models. I’m very excited about the highly productive partnerships we developed within the Center for Neuroscience Research at Children’s National, led by an internationally-renowned developmental neuroscientist, Vittorio Gallo, Ph.D., who is a co-senior author of this article. Because of our collaboration, my team has successfully utilized sophisticated and cutting-edge neuroscience techniques to study brain development in children born with CHD. To determine the causes of altered brain maturation in congenital heart disease and ultimately improve neurological function, we believe that a strong unity between cardiovascular and neuroscience research must be established.

Additional study authors include Camille Leonetti, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research fellow with the Center for Neuroscience Research and Children’s National Heart Institute, and Stephen Back, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of pediatrics at Oregon Health and Science University.

The research was supported by multiple grants and awards from the National Institutes of Health, inclusive of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (RO1HL139712), the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (1RO1NS054044, R37NS045737, R37NS109478), the National Institute on Aging (1RO1AG031892-01) and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (U54HD090257).

Additional support for this review was awarded by the American Heart Association (17GRNT33370058) and the District of Columbia Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, which is supported through the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development program grant 1U54HD090257.

AlgometRX

Breakthrough device objectively measures pain type, intensity and drug effects

AlgometRX

Clinical Research Assistant Kevin Jackson uses AlgometRx Platform Technology on Sarah Taylor’s eyes to measure her degree of pain. Children’s National is testing an experimental device that aims to measure pain according to how pupils react to certain stimuli. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Pediatric anesthesiologist Julia C. Finkel, M.D., of Children’s National Health System, gazed into the eyes of a newborn patient determined to find a better way to measure the effectiveness of pain treatment on one so tiny and unable to verbalize. Then she realized the answer was staring back at her.

Armed with the knowledge that pain and analgesic drugs produce an involuntary response from the pupil, Dr. Finkel developed AlgometRx, a first-of-its-kind handheld device that measures a patient’s pupillary response and, using proprietary algorithms, provides a diagnostic measurement of pain intensity, pain type and, after treatment is administered, monitors efficacy. Her initial goal was to improve the care of premature infants. She now has a device that can be used with children of any age and adults.

“Pain is very complex and it is currently the only vital sign that is not objectively measured,” says Dr. Finkel, who has more than 25 years of experience as a pain specialist. “The systematic problem we are facing today is that healthcare providers prescribe pain medicine based on subjective self-reporting, which can often be inaccurate, rather than based on an objective measure of pain type and intensity.” To illustrate her point, Dr. Finkel continues, “A clinician would never prescribe blood pressure medicine without first taking a patient’s blood pressure.”

The current standard of care for measuring pain is the 0-to-10 pain scale, which is based on subjective, observational and self-reporting techniques. Patients indicate their level of pain, with zero being no pain and ten being highest or most severe pain. This subjective system increases the likelihood of inaccuracy, with the problem being most acute with pediatric and non-verbal patients. Moreover, Dr. Finkel points out that subjective pain scores cannot be standardized, heightening the potential for misdiagnosis, over-treatment or under-treatment.

Dr. Finkel, who serves as director of Research and Development for Pain Medicine at the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children’s National, says that a key step in addressing the opioid crisis is providing physicians with objective, real-time data on a patient’s pain level and type, to safely prescribe the right drug and dosage or an alternate treatment.,

She notes that opioids are prescribed for patients who report high pain scores and are sometimes prescribed in cases where they are not appropriate. Dr. Finkel points to the example of sciatica, a neuropathic pain sensation felt in the lower back, legs and buttocks. Sciatica pain is carried by touch fibers that do not have opioid receptors, which makes opioids an inappropriate choice for treating that type of pain.

A pain biomarker could rapidly advance both clinical practice and pain research, Dr. Finkel adds. For clinicians, the power to identify the type and magnitude of a patient’s nociception (detection of pain stimuli) would provide a much-needed scientific foundation for approaching pain treatment. Nociception could be monitored through the course of treatment so that dosing is targeted and personalized to ensure patients receive adequate pain relief while reducing side effects.

“A validated measure to show whether or not an opioid is indicated for a given patient could ease the health care system’s transition from overreliance on opioids to a more comprehensive and less harmful approach to pain management,” says Dr. Finkel.

She also notes that objective pain measurement can provide much needed help in validating complementary approaches to pain management, such as acupuncture, physical therapy, virtual reality and other non-pharmacological interventions.

Dr. Finkel’s technology, called AlgometRx, has been selected by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to participate in its “Innovation Challenge: Devices to Prevent and Treat Opioid Use Disorder.” She is also the recipient of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Photo of nurses in the cardiac intensive care unit at Children's National

Can pyruvate support metabolic function following heart surgery?

Photo of nurses in the cardiac intensive care unit at Children's National

Nurses rush a child to the cardiac intensive care unit at Children’s National Health System.

Can pyruvate, the end product of glycolysis, help improve cardiovascular function in children who have cardiopulmonary bypass surgery and suffer from low cardiac output syndrome (LCOS)? This question is one that Rafael Jaimes, Ph.D., a staff scientist at Children’s National Heart Institute, a division of Children’s National Health System, is studying, thanks to a two-year grant from the American Heart Association.

The competitive grant awards Dr. Jaimes with $110,000 to study how pyruvate may help improve cardiac output among pediatric patients with LCOS. The compound aims to stimulate metabolic function, now treated by inotropic agents, such as dobutamine and milrinone. These agents ensure optimal delivery of oxygen from the heart to the brain, as well as to other organs in the body, following heart surgery. While these agents help patients with cardiac dysfunction, there is still a critical need for safe and effective therapies.

“If there’s any detriment in cardiac output, the heart’s function begins to degrade,” explains Dr. Jaimes. “You see a downward spiral effect with reduced cardiac output because the heart is dependent on its own perfusion. It needs to pump blood throughout the body to survive.”

This is where the pyruvate study, and the grant, will be applied: Can pyruvate target the essential muscle of the heart and reverse this cardiac destabilization – and as soon as possible?

“By increasing the metabolic output of the heart’s local muscle, cardiac output increases,” Dr. Jaimes explains. “That’s going to lead to better recovery.”

Better recovery could be measured by how fast a child recovers from heart surgery as well as how much time they spend in the hospital, clinically referred to as throughput. A faster recovery could also influence a child’s quality of life and reduce overall health care costs.

Based on preliminary data that shows pyruvate improves cardiac function in experimental models after ischemic insult, which is what happens when pediatric patients undergo cardiac surgery, Dr. Jaimes believes the results will likely replicate themselves in his preclinical models.

To start, he’ll test pyruvate using 100 blood samples and discarded tissue from patients. The blood samples will be tested for metabolic markers, including measured pyruvate levels.

Part of what encouraged Dr. Jaimes to study how this compound could complement or replace standard therapies was the encouragement he received from his mentors in the field.

“Nobody has looked into using pyruvate for almost 30 years,” says Dr. Jaimes. “It’s not commercially favorable, there’s no patent on it, it doesn’t have a lot of marketability and there are no financial incentives, so it’s been put aside.”

As part of a discussion with cardiologists at a medical conference in Washington, Dr. Jaimes brought up the idea of using pyruvate for pediatric heart surgeries and received positive feedback.

“Once everyone’s eyes lit up, I knew I was on to something,” says Dr. Jaimes about the encouragement he received to pursue this study.

“You put lactate and glucose in your IV solutions,” adds Dr. Jaimes. “Pyruvate is an essential nutrient. It’s almost an essential sugar so there’s no reason not to put it in. If these cardiologists are intrigued by the project, maybe the American Heart Association will be, too.”

In addition to funding the study, which could support future research about how metabolic makers in the blood can be stimulated to fast-track recovery following heart surgery, the American Heart Association grant is specific to pediatric health outcomes.

“The current state of pharmaceutical treatment for patients recovering from cardiac surgery is designed and created for adults,” says Dr. Jaimes. “From our research in pediatrics, we know that children aren’t small adults.”

Dr. Jaimes explains that children are different on an anatomical and physiological level. Their cells even look and function different, compared to adult cells, because they haven’t matured yet.

While congenital heart defects are rare, they affect 1 percent, or 40,000 births worldwide, they often require multiple surgeries throughout a child’s lifespan. LCOS impacts 25 percent of patients following cardiopulmonary bypass and the timing of treatment is important. In severe cases, insufficient cardiac output following surgery could impact a child’s long-term development, ranging from reasoning, learning, attention and executive function, to developing age-appropriate language and social skills.

“The metabolic insufficiencies I’m looking at, which may help improve the muscle function of the heart, are just one piece of a bigger puzzle in pediatric cardiology,” notes Dr. Jaimes about ongoing research at Children’s National Heart Institute. “We already know pyruvate is safe. We just have to see if it’s effective in supporting a patient’s recovery in the intensive care unit.”

Dr. Jaimes will work with his research mentor Nikki Posnack, Ph.D., assistant professor at the Children’s National Heart Institute, on this preclinical study throughout the grant’s lifecycle, which starts in early January 2019 and ends in late December 2020.

Charles Berul and Rohan Kumthekar demonstrate tiny pacemaker

A new prototype for tiny pacemakers, faster surgery

Charles Berul and Rohan Kumthekar demonstrate tiny pacemaker

Charles Berul, M.D., chief of cardiology at Children’s National, and Rohan Kumthekar, M.D., a cardiology fellow working in Dr. Berul’s bioengineering lab at the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation, explore ways to make surgical procedures for infants and children less invasive.

Rohan Kumthekar, M.D., a cardiology fellow working in Dr. Charles Berul’s bioengineering lab at the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation, part of Children’s National Health System, presented a prototype for a miniature pacemaker at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2018  on Sunday, Nov. 11. The prototype, approximately 1 cc, the size of an almond, is designed to make pacemaker procedures for infants less invasive, less painful and more efficient, measured by shorter surgeries, faster recovery times and reduced medical costs.

Kumthekar, a Cardiovascular Disease in the Young Travel Award recipient, delivered his oral abstract, entitled “Minimally Invasive Percutaneous Epicardial Placement of a Custom Miniature Pacemaker with Leadlet under Direct Visualization,” as part of the Top Translational Science Abstracts in Pediatric Cardiology session.

“As cardiologists and pediatric surgeons, our goal is to put a child’s health and comfort first,” says Kumthekar. “Advancements in surgical fields are tending toward procedures that are less and less invasive. There are many laparoscopic surgeries in adults and children that used to be open surgeries, such as appendix and gall bladder removals. However, placing pacemaker leads on infants’ hearts has always been an open surgery. We are trying to bring those surgical advances into our field of pediatric cardiology to benefit our patients.”

Instead of using open-chest surgery, the current standard for implanting pacemakers in children, doctors could implant the tiny pacemakers by making a relatively tiny 1-cm incision just below the ribcage.

“The advantage is that the entire surgery is contained within a tiny 1-cm incision, which is what we find groundbreaking,” says Kumthekar.

With the help of a patented two-channel, self-anchoring access port previously developed by Berul’ s research group, the operator can insert a camera into the chest to directly visualize the entire procedure. They can then insert a sheath (narrow tube) through the second channel to access the pericardial sac, the plastic-like cover around the heart. The leadlet, the short extension of the miniature pacemaker, can be affixed onto the surface of the heart under direct visualization. The final step is to insert the pacemaker into the incision and close the skin, leaving a tiny scar instead of two large suture lines.

The median time from incision to implantation in this thoracoscopic surgery study was 21 minutes, and the entire procedure took less than an hour on average. In contrast, pediatric open-heart surgery could take up to several hours, depending on the child’s medical complexities.

“Placing a pacemaker in a small child is different than operating on an adult, due to their small chest cavity and narrow blood vessels,” says Kumthekar. “By eliminating the need to cut through the sternum or the ribs and fully open the chest to implant a pacemaker, the current model, we can cut down on surgical time and help alleviate pain.”

The miniature pacemakers and surgical approach may also work well for adult patients with limited vascular access, such as those born with congenital heart disease, or for patients who have had open-heart surgery or multiple previous cardiovascular procedures.

The miniature pacemakers passed a proof-of-concept simulation and the experimental model is now ready for a second phase of testing, which will analyze how the tailored devices hold up over time, prior to clinical testing and availability for infants.

“The concept of inserting a pacemaker with a 1-cm incision in less than an hour demonstrates the power of working with multidisciplinary research teams to quickly solve complex clinical challenges,” says Charles Berul, M.D., a guiding study author, electrophysiologist and the chief of cardiology at Children’s National.

Berul’s team from Children’s National collaborated with Medtronic PLC, developers of the first implantable pacemakers, to develop the prototype and provide resources and technical support to test the minimally-invasive surgery.

The National Institutes of Health provided a grant to Berul’s research team to develop the PeriPath, the all-in-one 1-cm access port, which cut down on the number of incisions by enabling the camera, needle, leadlet and pacemaker to be inserted into one port, through one tiny incision.

Other study authors listed on the abstract presented at Scientific Sessions 2018 include Justin Opfermann, M.S., Paige Mass, B.S., Jeffrey P. Moak, M.D., and Elizabeth Sherwin, M.D., from Children’s National, and Mark Marshall, M.S., and Teri Whitman, Ph.D., from Medtronic PLC.

Nikki Gillum Posnack

Do plastic chemicals contribute to the sudden death of patients on dialysis?

Nikki Gillum Posnack

Nikki Posnack, Ph.D., assistant professor with the Children’s National Heart Institute, continues to explore how repeat chemical exposure from medical devices influences cardiovascular function.

In a review published in HeartRhythm, Nikki Posnack, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the Children’s National Heart Institute, and Larisa Tereshchenko, M.D., Ph.D., FHRS, a researcher with the Knight Cardiovascular Institute at Oregon Health and Science University, establish a strong foundation for a running hypothesis: Replacing BPA- and DEHP- leaching plastics for alternative materials used to create medical devices may help patients on dialysis, and others with impaired immune function, live longer.

While Drs. Tereshchenko and Posnack note clinical studies and randomized controlled trials are needed to test this theory, they gather a compelling argument by examining the impact exposure to chemicals from plastics used in dialysis have on a patient’s short- and long-term health outcomes, including sudden cardiac death (SCD).

“As our society modifies our exposure to plastics to mitigate health risks, we should think about overexposure to plastics in a medical setting,” says Posnack. “The purpose of the review in HeartRhythm is to gather data about the impact chemical compounds, leached from plastic devices, have on cardiovascular outcomes for patients spending prolonged periods of time in the hospital.”

In this review, the authors explore chemical risk exposures in a medical setting, starting with factors that influence sudden cardiac death (SCD) among dialysis patients.

Why study dialysis patients?

SCD in dialysis patients accounts for one-third of deaths in this population. This prompts a need to develop prevention strategies, especially among patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD).

The highest mortality rate observed among dialysis patients is during the first year of hemodialysis, a dialysis process that requires a machine to take the place of the kidneys and remove waste from the bloodstream and replenish it with minerals, such as potassium, sodium and calcium. During this year, mortality during hemodialysis is observed more frequently during the first three months of treatment, especially among older patients.

Possible reasons for an increased risk of an earlier death include chemical exposure, which is casually associated with altered cardiac function, as well as genetic risks for irregular heart rhythms and heart failure. In the HeartRhythm review, Drs. Tereshchenko and Posnack analyze factors that influence mortality:

Hemodialysis treatment, dialysis, is associated with plastic chemical exposure

Drs. Tereshchenko and Posnack note that dialysis tubing and catheters are commonly manufactured using polyvinyl chloride (PVC) polymers. The phthalate plastics used to soften PVC can easily leech if exposed to lipid-like substances, like blood. Research shows phthalate chemical concentrations increase during a four-hour dialysis.

Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is a common plastic used to manufacture dialysis tubes, thanks to its structure and economy.

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is another common material used in medical device manufacturing. From the membranes of medical tools to resins, or external coatings and adhesives, BPA leaves behind a chemical residue on PVC medical devices.

In reviewing the research, the authors find dialysis patients are often exposed to high levels of DEHP and BPA. The amount of exposure to these chemicals varies in regards to room temperature, time of contact, other circuit coatings and the flow rate of dialysis. A faster flow rate correlates with reductions in chemical leaching and lower mortality rates.

Plastic chemical exposure is casually associated with altered cardiac function

Drs. Tereshchenko and Posnack note a causal relationship already exists between chemicals absorbed from plastics and cardiovascular outcomes.

Dr. Posnack’s previous research found BPA concentrations impaired electrical conduction in neonatal cardiomyocytes – young, developing heart cells – potentially altering the heart’s normal rhythm and function.

To the best of their knowledge, no clinical research has been conducted on DEHP exposure and SCD. However, proof-of-concept models find in vivo phthalate exposure alters autonomic regulation, which can slow down natural heart-rate rhythm and create a lag in recovery time to stressful stimuli. For humans, this type of stressful stimulation would be equivalent to recovering from a bike ride, car accident, or in this case, ongoing dialysis treatment with impaired immune function.

In other models, BPA exposure has been shown to cause bradycardia, or a delayed heart rate. In excised whole heart models, BPA has also been shown to alter cardiac electrical activity.

Abnormal electrophysiological substrate in end-stage renal disease

Since the heart and kidneys work in tandem to transport blood throughout the body, and manage vital functions, such as our heart rate, blood flow and breathing, the authors cite additional factors that lead to ongoing heart and kidney problems, with a look at end-stage renal disease (ESRD).

General heart-function kidney risks include abnormal electrophysiological (EP) substrate, the underlying electrical activity of the cardiac tissue, and genetic risk factors, including the TBX3 gene, a gene associated with a unique positioning of the heart and SCD.

“We don’t want to cite alarm about having a medical procedure or about relying on external help, such as dialysis, for proper kidney function,” says Posnack. “Especially since dialysis is a life-saving medical intervention for patients with inadequate kidney function.”

Pre-existing abnormal EP substrate interacts with plastic chemical exposure in incident dialysis, which increases risk of SCD in genetically predisposed ESRD patients

To summarize their findings, Drs. Tereshchenko and Posnack list a handful of support areas, starting with observations about reductions in cardiovascular mortality and SCD following kidney transplants. They note hemodialysis catheters are associated with larger DEHP exposure and a higher risk of SCD, compared to arteriovenous fistulas, highways surgically created to connect blood from the artery to the vein.

Drs. Posnack and Tereshchenko also note a correlative observation about higher SCD rates observed six hours after hemodialysis, when peak levels of DEHP and BPA are circulating in the bloodstream.

To compare and control for these factors among dialysis patients, the researchers cite different mortality patterns with hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. Patients on hemodialysis experience higher mortality during the first year of treatment, compared to peritoneal dialysis, who have higher mortality rates after the second year of treatment. Hemodialysis relies on a machine to take the place of kidney function, while peritoneal dialysis relies on a catheter, a small tube surgically inserted into the stomach.

“Our goal is to build on our previous research findings by analyzing variables that have yet to be studied before, and to update the field of medicine in the process,” says Dr. Posnack. “This includes investigating the cardiovascular risks of using BPA- and DEHP-materials to construct medical devices. Ultimately, we hope to determine whether plastic materials contribute to cardiovascular risks, and investigate whether patients might benefit from the use of alternative materials for medical devices.

Drs. Tereshchenko and Posnack note that despite the associations between chemical exposure from medical devices and increased cardiovascular risks, there are no restrictions in the United States on the use of phthalates and BPA chemicals used to manufacture medical devices.

Their future research will explore how replacing BPA- and DEHP-leaching plastics influence mortality and morbidity rates of ESRD patients on dialysis, as well as other patients exposed to repeat chemical exposure, such as patients having cardiac surgery.

“We want to make sure we identify and then work to minimize any potential risks of plastic exposure in a medical setting,” adds Dr. Posnack. “Our goal is to put the health and safety of patients first.”

Dr. Posnack’s research is funded by two grants (R01HL139472, R00ES023477) from the National Institutes of Health.