View clinical trials related to Congenital Heart Defects.
Filter by:The purpose of this study is to determine whether inhaled iloprost is safe and effective in pediatric patients with pulmonary hypertension who are sick in the intensive care unit.
Congenital heart disease is one of the most common malformations in newborns. About 1% of newborns have cardiac malformations. Many need open heart surgery, which contributes substantially to pediatric mortality and morbidity. Recent advances in genetics suggest that many congenital heart defects are caused by mutation of genes. So far, half a dozen genes are found to be associated with congenital heart diseases, such as TBX5, NKX2.5, and GATA4, to name a few. In the near future, more genes will be identified. This study will evaluate the role of mutation of genes in congenital heart diseases and study the genotype-phenotype correlation. The central hypothesis is that a significant percentage of congenital heart disease is caused by mutation of genes involved in heart development, and the phenotype with missensed mutations is milder than nonsense mutation. Another hypothesis is that a significant proportion of patients with cardiac malformations will have mutations in their genes. The specific aim is to test the mutations of these genes in patients with congenital heart diseases. The study will provide substantial information to understand how the human heart develops. In the future, prenatal diagnosis could be developed based on this study.