Attacking heart failure in the young

Pediatric cardiology experts from around the world will gather at the Indiana University School of Medicine for the inaugural Riley Heart Center Symposium on Cardiac Development Sept. 8-9 at Riley Hospital for Children.

The symposium, organized by the Riley Heart Research Center, is targeted to basic scientists, clinical cardiologists and heart surgeons, and will focus on issues pertaining to the onset and treatment of heart failure in infants and children.

Congenital heart disease is the most common birth defect in infants and children and many of those structural abnormalities can lead to heart failure. Last year the National Institutes of Health's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute awarded the IU School of Medicine $11.5 million, the only institutional grant looking at the cause and treatment of heart failure in children.

Among the areas to be explored at the symposium are:

• How abnormal regulation of genes can lead to abnormal heart formation
• Blocking the signals and pathways that cause heart muscle to die
• Controls on the number and size of heart muscle cells during heart development
• Repairing damaged heart tissue
• Interventional strategies in newborn hearts

The Riley Heart Research Center, directed by Loren Field, Ph.D., is located in the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research in the Department of Pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine. Riley Hospital is known for its outstanding pediatric cardiac clinical care and surgery.

For additional information on the symposium and the Riley Heart Research Center, go to http://www.heartresearch.iupui.edu.