Close
Enter your
text here

The Heart Center

Are We Turning Away Too Many Pediatric Donor Hearts?
 Are We Turning Away Too Many Pediatric Donor Hearts? 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

More than half of all pediatric donor hearts are declined for use each year, despite the fact that many children die waiting for a heart. But why? And what can be done about it?   As many as one in every four infants on the heart transplant list dies awaiting an organ. For older children,…

read more
Bridging the Gap Between the Genomics Lab and the Cardiology Clinic: CardioGX for Phenotype-Driven Variant Analysis
 Bridging the Gap Between the Genomics Lab and the Cardiology Clinic: CardioGX for Phenotype-Driven Variant Analysis 150 150 Abbie Miller
By:

The cloud-based platform is a free tool that empowers clinicians and fosters collaboration to find new genetic mutations that cause heart disease. Finding ways to support clinicians and researchers in accessing and utilizing genomic data is paramount to incorporating genomics into clinical care. CardioGX (CardioGenomics eXchange commons) is an interactive web application designed to help clinicians and…

read more
Room for Improvement: Heart Catheterization Risks in Young Patients With Pulmonary Hypertension
 Room for Improvement: Heart Catheterization Risks in Young Patients With Pulmonary Hypertension 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:
Illustration of heart, CAVD

Identifying risk factors for cardiac catheterization complications offers physicians a way to improve pulmonary hypertension care. Up until a few years ago, cardiac catheterization in patients with pulmonary hypertension was considered a low-risk procedure for children and young adults. Some of the country’s best physicians had published studies showing very few complications among hundreds of…

read more
From What-if to Widely Available – A Proposed Path for Tissue Engineered Vascular Grafts
 From What-if to Widely Available – A Proposed Path for Tissue Engineered Vascular Grafts 150 150 Abbie Miller
By:

What if you could utilize tissue engineering, imaging and 3D printing technologies to bring the benefits of a tissue engineered vascular graft to every child who needs one? Children born with a single ventricle heart defect undergo a series of surgeries and procedures to reroute the blood flow through their heart. The Fontan operation is…

read more
The PDA Conundrum
 The PDA Conundrum 150 150 Jeb Phillips
By:

A patent ductus arteriosus is associated with increased morbidity and mortality, but common treatments are associated with poor outcomes as well. What is a neonatologist to do? Until the mid-2000s, most neonatologists were pretty sure they knew how to handle a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) in an infant born preterm – it needed to be…

read more
The National Mortality Rate for the Comprehensive Stage 2 Procedure
 The National Mortality Rate for the Comprehensive Stage 2 Procedure 1024 575 Jeb Phillips
By:

A substantial overall U.S. rate, in contrast to the low rates reported by a few single centers such as Nationwide Children’s, shows room for improvement in handling the hybrid approach for left ventricular physiology. Most published outcomes data on the pediatric Comprehensive Stage 2 procedure come from the few institutions routinely using the “hybrid approach”…

read more
A Key to Preventing Stenosis in Tissue-Engineered Vascular Grafts
 A Key to Preventing Stenosis in Tissue-Engineered Vascular Grafts 600 400 Kevin Mayhood
By:
Tissue engineered vascular graft

Seeding a high number of bone marrow mononuclear cells on graft appears to prevent narrowing. Tissue-engineered vascular grafts hold promise for children with congenital heart disease because the grafts, which carry a patient’s own cells, have the potential to grow and regenerate just as the child’s blood vessels do. But over time, some grafts develop…

read more
Building Heart Valves From Extracellular Matrix
 Building Heart Valves From Extracellular Matrix 150 150 Abbie Miller
By:

Physicians at Nationwide Children’s Hospital describe the use of an extracellular matrix cylindar valve in the mitral position. At The Heart Center at Nationwide Children’s, Patrick McConnell, MD, a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon, is using an alternative to the traditional cadaveric, mechanical or biological replacement valve. In a recent case report published in Echocardiography, Dr. McConnell and his colleagues describe the…

read more
How Genes and Environment Interact to Raise Risk of Congenital Heart Defects
 How Genes and Environment Interact to Raise Risk of Congenital Heart Defects 150 150 Mary Bates, PhD
By:

Genetic susceptibility plus maternal hyperglycemia interact to contribute to heart defects during fetal development. Infants of mothers with diabetes have a three- to five-fold increased risk of congenital heart defects. Such developmental defects are likely caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. However, the molecular mechanisms by which maternal diabetes disrupts normal heart…

read more
Dopamine: A Rescue Therapy for Fontan Patients With Protein-Losing Enteropathy?
 Dopamine: A Rescue Therapy for Fontan Patients With Protein-Losing Enteropathy? 150 150 Jeb Phillips
By:

Patients with quickly worsening PLE saw serum albumin levels stabilize after dopamine treatment. Patients who have undergone the Fontan procedure for single ventricle congenital heart disease do not often develop protein-losing enteropathy (PLE) – but those who do are at substantial risk of mortality and morbidity. Only heart transplant has been shown to alleviate PLE…

read more
Family Focus Restructures Single Ventricle Care
 Family Focus Restructures Single Ventricle Care 150 150 Brianne Moore
By:

Standardize, connected care in a multidisciplinary team environment aims to improve outcomes and quality of life for patients born with single ventricle heart anatomy. Children with single ventricle anatomy, one of the most harrowing of congenital heart defects, face unique challenges that require multiple procedures and hospital admissions to treat. In most institutions, each admittance…

read more
Taking Innovation to Heart: Next Gen Interventions in Heart Valve Disease
 Taking Innovation to Heart: Next Gen Interventions in Heart Valve Disease 1024 575 Abbie Miller
By:

From bioengineers to interventional cardiologists, molecular biologists to cardiothoracic surgeons, experts with diverse backgrounds are focusing on the problem of heart valve disease in children. Heart valve disease affects more than 5 million Americans. And while acquired disease in the adult population certainly accounts for much of this, children with heart valve disease face multiple…

read more
A Narrow Focus: Perfecting Tissue Engineered Vascular Grafts
 A Narrow Focus: Perfecting Tissue Engineered Vascular Grafts 1024 575 Abbie Miller
By:
image of heart with fontan conduit highlighted

A pair of surgeon-researchers is perfecting tissue engineered vascular grafts through bench, clinical and computational modeling studies.

read more
ANH Preserves Platelet Count and Function Regardless of Storage Method and Time
 ANH Preserves Platelet Count and Function Regardless of Storage Method and Time 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
By:

Length of storage during cardiac surgeries appears to have no detrimental effects on blood. Across the United States, transfusions are standard in cardiac operating rooms, but at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, a practice geared toward limiting blood transfusion has been established and finely honed. According to a recent study from The Heart Center at Nationwide Children’s, more than…

read more
How a QI Project Dramatically Increased Pediatric Survival After Cardiopulmonary Arrest
 How a QI Project Dramatically Increased Pediatric Survival After Cardiopulmonary Arrest 150 150 Jeb Phillips
By:

A survival rate of 37-48 percent among young heart surgery patients who experience code events is the norm. A multidisciplinary review process helped achieve an 81 percent rate at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Survival rates have remained stubbornly low for young heart surgery patients who experience cardiopulmonary arrest; critical care literature reports that fewer than 50…

read more
Understanding Stress Experienced by Survivors of Congenital Heart Disease
 Understanding Stress Experienced by Survivors of Congenital Heart Disease 150 150 Tiasha Letostak, PhD
By:

For adolescent and adult survivors of congenital heart disease, how they perceive disease-related stress has a key connection to how they report health outcomes, such as quality of life and emotional well-being. Researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital are the first to systematically identify different types of disease-related stress experienced by survivors of congenital heart disease,…

read more
A New Use for Kangaroo Care
 A New Use for Kangaroo Care 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
By:

A parent’s touch reduces agitation, allows infants and toddlers to remain extubated after heart surgery. A small percentage of babies and young children who have undergone congenital cardiac surgery and early tracheal extubation are treated with a calming parent’s touch at Nationwide Children’s Hospital – a strategy that physicians have found works better in some…

read more
Signaling Pathway Changes May Flag CAVD, Offer Target for Therapies
 Signaling Pathway Changes May Flag CAVD, Offer Target for Therapies 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
By:

Loss of TgfB1 from the endothelium leads to a reduction in Sox9 expression and valve calcification. A team of researchers has identified a molecular signaling pathway that, when altered, can contribute to calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD). The finding may provide a method for early diagnosis — many patients don’t learn they have the disease until it’s in the final…

read more
The Transfusion Evolution
 The Transfusion Evolution 576 367 Abbie Miller
By:

The first successful open heart surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass was performed in 1953, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that these surgeries began to have high success rates — due in large part to the availability of fresh whole blood transfusions. However, fresh whole blood is difficult to attain. In response, blood component transfusions became…

read more
InSight: A Window to the Heart
 InSight: A Window to the Heart 720 530 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By:

Cardiac MRI for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) is a potentially fatal congenital heart defect affecting blood flow. It requires multiple palliative surgeries, starting within the first week of life. Nationwide Children’s employs a hybrid surgical approach. Hybrid Stage I (not shown) Bilateral branch pulmonary bands are placed to restrict blood flow.…

read more
Survivors of Congenital Heart Disease Report Poor Risk Knowledge and High-Fat Diets
 Survivors of Congenital Heart Disease Report Poor Risk Knowledge and High-Fat Diets 150 150 Tiasha Letostak, PhD
By:

A new study suggests that CHD survivors may lack knowledge about their disease and would benefit from education about future risks and health behaviors. Over 1 million adults with congenital heart disease (CHD) currently reside in the United States. These individuals are at heightened risk for numerous health concerns, including endocarditis, pregnancy complications and life-threatening…

read more
Adult Congenital Heart Disease: Let’s Finish What We Started
 Adult Congenital Heart Disease: Let’s Finish What We Started 150 150 Curt Daniels, MD
By:

Congenital heart disease is the most common birth defect, diagnosed in nearly 1 percent of all births in the United States. Traditionally, life expectancy in many infants with severe CHD was limited to months. However, advances in medical and surgical care have led to remarkable improvements in survival: the median age of those living with severe…

read more
By the Book: Anticoagulation for CHD
 By the Book: Anticoagulation for CHD 150 150 Kelli Whitlock Burton
By:

The American Heart Association (AHA) has released its first evidence-based guidelines on anticoagulation in congenital heart disease (CHD). Anticoagulation is a key element in managing patients with congenital heart disease. Despite the therapy’s widespread use, there are no established guidelines on anticoagulants in this patient population, which often leads to inconsistency and guesswork in how…

read more
  • 1
  • 2