News on Congenital Heart Defects

From HealthDay: "Parents should begin the process as child enters adolescence, experts say." (3/3/11)

From Adoption.com: "Like most medical conditions, there is quite a range of heart defects in children. Here are many of the heart defects that you may encounter, especially in international adoption." (2/28/11)

From Reuters: "Using skin cells taken from children with a rare heart defect, U.S. researchers have created beating heart cells in the lab with the same heart defect, allowing researchers to test new drugs in human cells instead of mice." (2/10/11)

The six-year-old cutie behind the mask has Tetralogy of Fallot and a pacemaker. (2/8/11)

Observed February 7-14. (2/8/11)

From Mayo Clinic: "Harold Burkhart, M.D., a cardiovascular surgeon at Mayo Clinic, describes the congenital heart condition atrial septal defect (ASD) and discusses treatment options for children and adults." (6/28/10)

From University of Michigan: "A trial on shunts used to direct blood flow to the lungs, led by researchers at the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital will lead to better outcomes for kids worldwide born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, the most common severe heart birth defect." (5/27/10)

From About.com Pregnancy: "About 1 in every 125 babies born has congenital heart disease (CHD). Many of these are not known prior to birth and some are not known until later in life, sometimes, only after a tragedy has happened." (2/9/10)

From About.com Rare Diseases: "Premature babies have a high risk for patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), a heart defect. Researchers conducted a study to see if they could identify any genetic markers for PDA." (4/22/09)

From About.com Infectious Diseases: "Danny Gokey has set up a foundation, Sophia's Heart Foundation, in honor of his late wife, whose main purpose is to raise money and support for children who have suffered poverty, disease, broken families, and broken dreams." (3/12/09)

From HealthDay: "A device that helps reduce the severity of adhesions in children who have open heart surgery has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration." (3/9/09)

From 5 Minutes for Special Needs: "I don't know alot about heart abnormalities, really. I only know that aortic valve stenosis was one of the reasons my son died." (2/20/09)

From Reuters: "Doctors may one day be able to use stem cells taken from umbilical cord blood to build new heart valves for children born with heart defects, German scientists said on Monday. These valves could grow as a child develops, doing away with any need for repeated operations to replace outgrown artificial valves or valves made from animal or human donor tissue." (11/11/08)

From About.com Rare Diseases "'Congenital heart disease affects 8 to 12 per 1000 live-born infants and is one of the most common and serious types of birth defects,' writes Dr. Ruey-Kang R. Chang, of UCLA Medical Center. 'Many infants born with congenital heart disease are discharged from the hospital nursery with their conditions undiagnosed.'" (11/5/08)

From Reuters: "Children born with a hole between the left and right sides of the heart - what doctors call a ventricular septal defect -- are generally as healthy and physically fit as other children and should not be discouraged from engaging in strenuous exercise, a Dutch research team has found." (10/29/08)

From Reuters: "A miniaturized heart pump helped keep eight out of nine severely ill children alive long enough to receive a heart transplant, U.S. researchers said on Monday." (10/5/08)

From TimesTribune.com: "Nearly twice as many children in the United States die each year from congenital heart disease as die from all forms of childhood cancer, according to the American Heart Association." (9/14/08)

Donors weren't, technically, dead. (8/14/08)

"Researchers are reporting an advance in tissue engineering techniques that has helped them move a step closer toward a living replacement heart valve for children." (9/11/07)

If your child has had surgery in the past 10 years that involved the implanting of a heart valve, valve conduit, annuloplasty ring, surgical graft, mesh or other medical device, a warning issued today by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration may be cause for concern. (4/18/07)

From AP: "Connor Geddes was 13 days old when surgeons gave him a new heart that didn't match his blood type - deliberately." (2/13/07)

"Early results from two studies suggested women who took Paxil during the first three months of pregnancy were 1.5 to 2 times as likely to have a baby born with a heart defect as women who received other antidepressants or women who didn't take antidepressants." (11/30/06)

"The erectile dysfunction drug Viagra may have found a new, potentially life-saving use in hospital pediatric intensive care units, researchers report. Australian researchers gave the drug to 15 babies with congenital heart disease who were being weaned from inhaled nitric-oxide therapy, a treatment that ICUs use to help these infants survive." (11/2/06)

"The Royal Victoria Hospital has appointed a specialist to detect heart defects in babies still in the womb." (6/17/06)

As the first generation of children to receive heart surgery for congenital defects moves into its 20s and 30s, problems are beginning to develop that no one had properly anticipated. (1/25/06)