Heart Defect News and Research

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Sildenafil helps improve exercise performance in children with congenital heart disease

Sildenafil, a drug used to treat erectile dysfunction and pulmonary hypertension, has another possible use—helping children and young adults with congenital heart disease to better tolerate exercise.

11 Mar 2011

UK Healthcare announces significant milestone for Kentucky Children's Heart Center

UK HealthCare announces a significant milestone for the Kentucky Children's Heart Center at Kentucky Children's Hospital and UK Albert B. Chandler Medical Center.

8 Mar 2011

DMC CVI completes the first two transcatheter aortic valve implants in Michigan

The Detroit Medical Center (DMC) Cardiovascular Institute (CVI) has completed the first two transcatheter aortic valve implants (TAVI) ever achieved in Michigan. The procedures are a part of CVI's participation in the Medtronic CoreValve® U.S. Clinical Trial. This multi-state trial will evaluate a new, non-surgical alternative to open-heart surgery for patients with severe aortic stenosis.

2 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

Texas Children's scientist receives CAREER Award for congenital heart research

Texas Children's Hospital in Houston announces that a researcher in its Pediatric Cardiac Bioengineering Laboratory has earned a National Science Foundation Early Career Development Award for his work in studying the causes of congenital heart disease, heart defects, and the development of tissue engineering therapies using stem cells derived from human amniotic fluid.

19 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

Rare heart defect reproduced in petri dish, hope for cure

U.S. researchers have created beating heart cells in the lab with the same heart defect using skin cells taken from children with a rare heart defect. This means they can now test new drugs in human cells instead of mice.

13 Feb 2011

Scientists generate beating heart cells from skin cells of young patients with severe genetic heart defect

Using skin cells from young patients who have a severe genetic heart defect, Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have generated beating heart cells that carry the same genetic mutation. The newly created human heart cells - cardiomyocytes - allowed the researchers for the first time to examine and characterize the disorder at the cellular level.

10 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

Pediatric physicians present 12 research abstracts, posters at Cardiology 2011

Pediatric cardiology researchers and clinicians gather this week in Scottsdale, Ariz. for Cardiology 2011, the 15th Annual Update on Pediatric and Congenital Cardiovascular Disease, sponsored by The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Original research from more than 30 cardiac programs in the U.S. and abroad is being presented throughout the meeting.

7 Feb 2011

Vascular birthmarks can cause concern for parents: Dermatologists

Vascular birthmarks, which occur in nearly 10 percent of all infants at birth or within the first few weeks of life, can cause concern for parents particularly if they are large or in a cosmetically important area. The decision to treat a birthmark is one that parents should make with a dermatologist, who can determine the type of birthmark and whether or not it poses any potential risks in the future.

5 Feb 2011

Lack of DOT1L enzyme could lead to some types of heart disease: Study

Everyone knows chocolate is critical to a happy Valentine's Day. Now scientists are one step closer to knowing what makes a heart happy the rest of the year.

5 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

New replacement valve can help patients to avoid multiple open-heart surgeries

Congenital heart defects are the most common type of major birth defects in the U.S., affecting about 34,000 babies each year. Twenty percent of these patients are born with a malformation of the pulmonary valve, which is a flap-like opening on the right side of the heart that is responsible for regulating the blood flow to the lungs. Now, a new replacement valve being used at Rush University Medical Center can help patients with damaged heart valves delay or avoid multiple open-heart surgeries.

3 Feb 2011

Cardiac stem cell therapy can rebuild damaged heart in children

Visionaries in the field of cardiac therapeutics have long looked to the future when a damaged heart could be rebuilt or repaired by using one's own heart cells. A study published in the February issue of Circulation, a scientific journal of the American Heart Association, shows that heart stem cells from children with congenital heart disease were able to rebuild the damaged heart in the laboratory.

27 Jan 2011

Heart Defect News and Research

Sildenafil helps improve exercise performance in children with congenital heart disease

UK Healthcare announces significant milestone for Kentucky Children's Heart Center

DMC CVI completes the first two transcatheter aortic valve implants in Michigan

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

Texas Children's scientist receives CAREER Award for congenital heart research

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

Story of the heart: Literally as well as metaphorically

Rare heart defect reproduced in petri dish, hope for cure

Scientists generate beating heart cells from skin cells of young patients with severe genetic heart defect

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

Pediatric physicians present 12 research abstracts, posters at Cardiology 2011

Vascular birthmarks can cause concern for parents: Dermatologists

Lack of DOT1L enzyme could lead to some types of heart disease: Study

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

New replacement valve can help patients to avoid multiple open-heart surgeries

Cardiac stem cell therapy can rebuild damaged heart in children

Cell binding mechanism can lead to new treatments for skin diseases, lethal heart defects

Screening for CCDC40 gene mutations may help determine risk for congenital heart defects

U.S mortality rate from congenital heart defects drops 24%: Report

St. Jude Medical completes acquisition of AGA Medical

Achieving and maintaining ISO/IEC 27001 and BS 10012 certifications

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

Examining how pain could play a direct protective role in the gut

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