Congenital Heart Defect News and Research

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A congenital heart defect is a problem with the structure of the heart. It is present at birth. Congenital heart defects are the most common type of major birth defect.

UTHealth, PLx Pharma to test phosphatidylcholine-enriched version of indomethacin in PDA model

PLx Pharma Inc, a Houston-based pharmaceutical company developing a medical discovery made at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Medical School, has been awarded $565,449 for the first year of a potential two-year $1,118,398 grant to conduct research designed to enhance a treatment for premature babies with a common congenital heart defect.

29 Mar 2012

UAB first hospital in Alabama to offer Melody Valve replacement

In many ways Dylan Fields is your typical 15-year-old boy. He loves sports, and plays baseball and soccer for his school, Tallassee High, in Central Alabama. What's not typical about Dylan is his heart defect and, now, the procedure used to repair his heart.

6 Mar 2012

Experts to discuss current treatments for children with heart disease at Cardiology 2012

An international group of almost 1000 medical experts gathers this week to discuss the most current treatments for children with heart disease. Affecting about a million children born each year throughout the world, congenital heart disease is the most common birth defect. In its severe forms, it is also the leading cause of death from birth defects in infants.

23 Feb 2012

Baby Jaya receives a pacemaker 15 mins after birth

Little Jaya lived up to her name which in Hindi means victorious. Jaya Maharaj became one of the smallest recipients of a pacemaker when she was just 15 minutes old.

15 Feb 2012

Researchers derive vessel-forming stem cells from amniotic fluid

Researchers at Rice University and Texas Children's Hospital have turned stem cells from amniotic fluid into cells that form blood vessels. Their success offers hope that such stem cells may be used to grow tissue patches to repair infant hearts.

7 Feb 2012

St. Jude Medical meets stopping rule in RESPECT clinical trial, closes patient enrollment

St. Jude Medical, Inc., a global medical device company, today announced that it has met a stopping rule in its RESPECT clinical trial - triggered by reaching the protocol-required number of primary events in the trial, defined as stroke and all-cause mortality - and is closing patient enrollment.

4 Jan 2012

FDA nod for pediatric Berlin heart

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Berlin Heart for pediatric patients waiting for heart transplants. The ventricular assist device is similar to the one worn by former Vice President Dick Cheney but scaled down in size for children and babies.

19 Dec 2011

Move Day at U-M hospitals goes smoothly

Sunday's move from the now former U-M C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, the Von Voigtlander Women's Hospital and the Adult Bone Marrow Transplant Unit to the new facility began at 7:02 a.m. Sunday with a tiny patient - a baby moving from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

6 Dec 2011

Healthy fetus aborted by mistake

The Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne has mounted an investigation into the accidental termination of a healthy 32-week-old fetus.

24 Nov 2011

Study determines incidence of aortic complications in BAV and general population

While the incidence of the life-threatening condition of aortic dissection is significantly higher than in the general population, it remains low among patients with the congenital heart defect, bicuspid aortic valve; however, the incidence of aortic aneurysms is significantly high, according to a study in the September 14 issue of JAMA.

14 Sep 2011

Pulse oximetry to detect birth defects: Doctors propose nationwide screening

According to a recommendation by a federal advisory panel, before newborns leave the hospital, they should receive a simple, pain-free test to check for signs of congenital heart disease, one of the most common types of birth defects.

23 Aug 2011

Non-Hispanic black infants born with heart defects more likely to die within five years

Non-Hispanic black infants born with heart defects are more likely to die within the first five years of life than their non-Hispanic white and Hispanic peers. For certain types of congenital heart abnormalities, Hispanic children as well as non-Hispanic black children fare worse than non-Hispanic white children.

18 Apr 2011

Australian researchers say the search must widen for genes that cause heart defects in babies

Australian scientists have discovered a new group of genes that could be responsible for causing heart defects in children, which affect more than 2000 babies born each year in Australia.

29 Mar 2011

UMHC cardiologist implants heart valve without open-heart surgery

Dr. Makram R. Ebeid, pediatric cardiologist and professor of pediatrics with University of Mississippi Health Care, has successfully performed a transcatheter pulmonary heart valve replacement procedure for the first time in the state, a nonsurgical alternative to open-heart surgery.

22 Mar 2011

Doctors should transit patients to adult medical care for congenital heart disease during early adolescence

Doctors should transition their patients from pediatric to adult medical care for congenital heart disease during early adolescence, experts recommend in a scientific statement published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

1 Mar 2011

UCH installs GE's CARESCAPE Monitor B850 to enhance clinical decision making in the NICU

GE Healthcare today announced that the University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) has installed the new CARESCAPE™ Monitor B850, the company's latest advance in bedside patient monitoring, to help enhance clinical decision making in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Deployed in UCH's 50-bed NICU and Neonatal OR, the CARESCAPE Monitor B850 enables access to critical patient information from any bedside monitor anywhere in the unit.

28 Feb 2011

Mutations in gene linked to structure of the heart seen in Ebstein's anomaly patients

Ebstein's anomaly is a rare congenital valvular heart disease. Now, in patients with this disease, researchers of the Academic Medical Center Amsterdam in the Netherlands, the University of Newcastle, UK and the Max Delbr-ck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch have identified mutations in a gene which plays an important role in the structure of the heart.

16 Feb 2011

Story of the heart: Literally as well as metaphorically

Stephen Amidon, a novelist and co-author of The Sublime Engine: A Biography of the Human Heart, writes about the story of the human heart through the world of science, history, culture and our bodies with his brother Thomas who is a practicing cardiologist in Montana and a former medical director of The Hope Heart Institute. Thomas said, “Ironically, I did an angiogram on a patient last week who had very calcified and hardened arteries that were almost precisely in the shape of the Valentine heart… But I don't think the early depicters of that heart shape had access to the same view of the heart that I have.”

14 Feb 2011

Survey finds most hospitals, birthing centers do not routinely screen for congenital heart defects

Only about two out of every 100 babies (1.8 percent) were screened at birth for congenital heart defects (CHDs) because the hospital or birthing center where the baby was born routinely screens all newborns for CHDs -- the number-one birth defect and leading killer of infants and newborns. This is according to a survey just released by Little Hearts, Inc., a national organization that provides support, education, resources, networking and hope to families affected by congenital heart defects.

8 Feb 2011

Cardiac team implants pulmonary valve in children without open-heart surgery

The pediatric cardiac team at Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher Children's Hospital is the first in the region and one of a handful in the nation to implant a pulmonary heart valve without open-heart surgery.

4 Feb 2011