Research & Innovation | Overview
Cardiac catheterization is a highly specialized part of heart care. Here are several of our team’s research initiatives and innovations that have helped advance catheterization to be an effective and safe diagnostic tool and type of treatment.
Getting a healthy head start with fetal care
Along with our colleagues at the Fetal Cardiology Program, our specialists performed the first successful fetal cardiac intervention in 2001. The two programs continue to be a leader in evaluating, diagnosing, and treating, in utero, congenital heart defects (CHD) and other heart conditions. Early treatment of serious conditions such as aortic valve stenosis with evolving hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) vastly improves the health of children when they are born.
The busy life of the first fetal cardiac intervention patient
The first fetal cardiac intervention let Jack “be who he was born to be.”
Going inside out with transcatheter valve replacement
We perform a truly unique minimally invasive procedure: replacing a diseased valve without removing it. Using the same techniques as a stent placement in an artery, we insert a new collapsable valve inside the old valve. As the new valve expands, it pushes away the old tissue that had acted as valve leaflets and lets the new material take over the job of controlling blood flow.
Innovations in transcatheter valve replacement
Transcatheter replacement valves are a safe, effective option for children who need treatment for diseased aortic, mitral, pulmonary, and tricuspid valves.
Treating premature infants’ PDA with a ‘pea-sized’ device
Our team offers an effective approach to treating patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) in premature babies. Closing a PDA in these tiny patients had long been elusive; surgery can be risky, and medication doesn’t always work. But we’ve had excellent outcomes inserting a device smaller than a pea into the vein.
PDA transcatheter closure in preemies
A PDA closure device smaller than a pea can treat premature babies who are as small as 600 grams.
Building a bridge to surgery for newborns
Many newborns with serious heart and pulmonary conditions need immediate treatment — but some are too sick to withstand surgery. Our cardiologists worked with Boston Children’s cardiac surgeons to create a palliative measure for newborns who have CHDs and pulmonary over circulation. Their reconfiguration of a vascular plug into a pulmonary artery flow restrictor helps the newborns get healthy for surgery.
Finding a way to help newborns who can’t immediately have heart treatment
Our heart specialists leaned into technological innovation, their experience, and a perseverance that would ultimately confirm their belief that even the highest-risk cases are not out of reach.
Transcatheter therapies for middle aortic syndrome
Transcatheter treatment has become a vital option for widening the narrow arteries of children who have the rare condition midaortic syndrome, especially children who are not in the proper health to have heart surgery. We use balloon angioplasty and stenting to keep their arteries open.
It takes a team to treat midaortic syndrome
Our cardiac catheterization team has a key role in the Midaortic Syndrome and Renovascular Hypertension Center’s treatment of children.