A research team at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s (CHOP) Cardiac Center was awarded more than $646,000 over three years by Additional Ventures, a nonprofit foundation that funds research to cure single ventricle heart disease. The Single Ventricle Research Fund (SVRF) is Additional Ventures’ flagship research award program supporting hypothesis-driven studies to better understand single ventricle heart disease as a lifelong, multi-organ condition, not just a structural heart defect.
Although survival following neonatal cardiac surgery has improved in recent years, many children continue to experience brain injury and long-term neurodevelopmental disabilities, and the physiologic mechanisms responsible remain poorly understood. CHOP’s project, “Advanced Neuromonitoring to Improve Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Neonates with Single Ventricle Heart Disease,” will focus on better understanding how and why brain injury occurs in newborns with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) undergoing the Norwood procedure, which helps the single right ventricle pump blood to the whole body.
The team, led by Jennifer Lynch, MD, PhD, Associate Chief of Research, Division of Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology at CHOP’s Cardiac Center, will use advanced, noninvasive optical neuromonitoring technologies developed in her laboratory. Combined with quantitative electroencephalography (EEG) and pre- and postoperative brain MRI, these tools will continuously measure cerebral blood flow, oxygen delivery, oxygen utilization, and brain metabolic activity throughout surgery.
“By combining these different kinds of monitoring data with detailed clinical information from before, during and after surgery, we hope to find clear, measurable body signals that can predict brain injury after surgery and show when the brain is most vulnerable during the operation,” said Lynch. “This work will guide future studies that use this monitoring to tailor blood flow to the brain and other protective steps for each child, with the goal of improving brain-related outcomes for children with complex congenital heart disease.”
CHOP was among 15 research teams selected by Additional Ventures this year to investigate mechanisms behind major complications affecting organs such as the liver, brain, vasculature, lymphatics, and immune system, with several projects coordinated around Fontan-associated liver disease and early-life determinants of outcomes.
Learn more here.
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A research team at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s (CHOP) Cardiac Center was awarded more than $646,000 over three years by Additional Ventures, a nonprofit foundation that funds research to cure single ventricle heart disease. The Single Ventricle Research Fund (SVRF) is Additional Ventures’ flagship research award program supporting hypothesis-driven studies to better understand single ventricle heart disease as a lifelong, multi-organ condition, not just a structural heart defect.
Although survival following neonatal cardiac surgery has improved in recent years, many children continue to experience brain injury and long-term neurodevelopmental disabilities, and the physiologic mechanisms responsible remain poorly understood. CHOP’s project, “Advanced Neuromonitoring to Improve Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Neonates with Single Ventricle Heart Disease,” will focus on better understanding how and why brain injury occurs in newborns with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) undergoing the Norwood procedure, which helps the single right ventricle pump blood to the whole body.
The team, led by Jennifer Lynch, MD, PhD, Associate Chief of Research, Division of Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology at CHOP’s Cardiac Center, will use advanced, noninvasive optical neuromonitoring technologies developed in her laboratory. Combined with quantitative electroencephalography (EEG) and pre- and postoperative brain MRI, these tools will continuously measure cerebral blood flow, oxygen delivery, oxygen utilization, and brain metabolic activity throughout surgery.
“By combining these different kinds of monitoring data with detailed clinical information from before, during and after surgery, we hope to find clear, measurable body signals that can predict brain injury after surgery and show when the brain is most vulnerable during the operation,” said Lynch. “This work will guide future studies that use this monitoring to tailor blood flow to the brain and other protective steps for each child, with the goal of improving brain-related outcomes for children with complex congenital heart disease.”
CHOP was among 15 research teams selected by Additional Ventures this year to investigate mechanisms behind major complications affecting organs such as the liver, brain, vasculature, lymphatics, and immune system, with several projects coordinated around Fontan-associated liver disease and early-life determinants of outcomes.
Learn more here.
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Natalie Solimeo
Cardiac Center