Active clinical trials for "Heart Defects, Congenital"

The purpose of the study is to evaluate a peer coaching intervention in young adults with congenital heart disease.

This study aims to evaluate the electrophysiological properties of the heart conduction system in patients with (increased risk of) ventricular tachyarrhythmias (VTA) and sudden cardiac arrest, and in a control cohort. The electrophysiological properties will be measured with the relatively new technique ECG-Imaging (ECGI). Moreover, clinical data of subjects will be gathered. By combining the data from the data gathering and the results of ECGI, the investigators hope to increase mechanistic understanding of and risk stratification for VTAs. The investigators aim to be able to identify patients at risk of an arrhythmic event, and aim for better treatment strategies in the future.

Remarkable progress in paediatric cardiology and surgery have led to the substantial increase of congenital heart disease (CHD) survivors. Long-term outcomes in rare and complex CHD have become a critical priority as three major sources of morbidity have been identified in this population: neurodevelopmental sequelae, mental health issues and reduced exercise capacity. These challenges adversely affect their quality of life and constitute a major public health issue. We seek to evaluate the efficacy of the first integrative and holistic program in Neuro-Cardiac Health associating physical and psychological rehabilitation for children with rare CHD compared to the standard of care. Children randomly assigned to the intervention will undergo a 12-week neuro-cardiac intervention including home-based adaptive physical exercise, telehealth parent and child psycho-education and child computerized cognitive training, as well in-person individual sessions of intervention reinforcement. Parents will be actively involved and will receive personalized feedback and educational resources. Children assigned to the control group will receive the standard of care in congenital cardiology. Post-intervention effects will be measured after 12-months on several outcomes including health-related quality of life (HRQoL), trained and untrained cognitive skills, mental health outcomes and cardiovascular/physical variables.

This is a multi-site research study with an optional research repository that will consist of clinically derived data and photographic or video images of patients in the home setting with complex health conditions to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the CHAMP® software platform, with data and photographic or video images input and/or uploaded by the parent or other legally authorized representative (LAR) of patients with complex congenital heart disease as a target population.

Patients that have undergone a Fontan procedure (surgical correction for single ventricle congenital heart disease) may develop a complication known as protein-losing enteropathy (PLE). Some studies suggest PLE is primarily caused by impaired lymph flow. Use of continuous dopamine infusion can improve PLE. Evidence suggests the effect of dopamine may be through its effect on lymphatic function. This observational study looks at markers of lymph flow and PLE symptoms after treatment using dopamine and other standard therapies during disease exacerbations.

A mixed-methods study will be used to evaluate the use of standard of care periodic pulse oximetry by parents/LAR and the feasibility of the collection of physiologic data related to the use of the Pediarity System. This system includes the Gabi Band and software platform (Gabi Analytics).

This study is an ancillary study to the NHLBI-funded Pediatric Heart Network (PHN) "Multi-Institutional Neurocognitive Discovery Study" (MINDS) in Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD). The MINDS-ACHD" study will recruit 500 complex CHD patients between18-30 years old. The investigators propose to quantitate multi-modal neuroimaging biomarkers (brain injury, structure and physiology) which are not only important components of brain and cognitive reserve but can be predictive of neurocognitive decline and early onset of dementia in the aging non-CHD population.

Around 3500 children including 1,000 babies a year in the UK require heart surgery. Open-heart repairs involve the heart being stopped, while blood is pumped around the body using a cardiopulmonary bypass machine. Following complex operations, the patient may temporarily develop poor heart function, leading to reduced organ blood supply. Low heart output leads to post-operative complications or even death. The current methods to assess cardiac output and to see if vital organs, especially the brain, are receiving enough blood flow, are indirect and can be inaccurate. If we find a better way to detect and then avert or ameliorate periods of poor cardiac output and / or reduced brain perfusion, then this would be helpful for clinicians and could lead to better outcomes for children. We believe that optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), a non-invasive way to image the blood vessels in the retina at the back of the eye, could help us to assess cardiac output and brain perfusion. The OCTA machine was approved for use in humans in 2019 and given a CE Marking, but it has previously been used mainly in the management of eye diseases. There is a small amount of experience with its use in critically ill adults. We plan a pilot study to see if it is possible to use the OCTA machine at key time points, before, during and after children's heart operations, in 30 patients. We will study the images taken with OCTA machine to see if they are of good quality and we will analyze the images to see whether or not the expected changes in cardiac output and brain perfusion that occur with heart surgery can be detected as changes in blood flow in the back of the eye. Depending on the success of this pilot, we will plan further studies.

Obtain blood samples for generation and maintenance of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and genomic/DNA sequencing for biomedical research that will improve the understanding and treatment of pediatric cardiovascular disease

Often, infants struggle to feed orally after surgery for congenital heart disease and may require supplemental feeding interventions at discharge. In this study, the investigators prospectively randomize infants to oral or nasal endotracheal intubation for surgery and assess postoperative feeding success.