The Mayo Clinic and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia are working together to delay and prevent heart failure from hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a rare and complex form of congenital heart disease in children.
The initiative between Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is part of a nationwide project. Mayo Clinic plans on having five to seven regional centers throughout the U.S. and funding the development of cell-based research for HLHS.
The Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome at Mayo Clinic, which was founded in 2010, is spearheading the national initiative. Through the program, Mayo Clinic physicians, researchers and staff members examine therapeutic approaches to analyze, diagnose and treat HLHS.
The program has researched imaging and outcomes, human genetics and regenerative strategies and has created an annotated biorepository.
The Mayo Clinic said HLHS affects nearly 1,000 newborns in the U.S. each year.
Pediatric cardiologists diagnose HLHS with an echocardiogram, often before babies are born, according to the Mayo Clinic. After diagnosis, children typically undergo a three-stage surgical heart procedure. Patients may also require a heart transplant later in life.
Executive Editor
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.