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Children's Hospital of Philadelphia launches fetal neuroprotection program
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The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia announced the launch of its Fetal Neuroprotection and Neuroplasticity Program, intended to explore new therapies to aid in brain development and prevent injury before birth in fetuses with congenital heart disease, according to a press release.
The program is a joint venture between the Cardiac Center, Fetal Heart Program, Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment and the Division of Neurology. At its inception, the focus is on fetuses with congenital heart disease, with plans to eventually incorporate other birth defects including pulmonary hypoplasia and congenital diaphragmatic hernia. According to the release, the program is the first dedicated specifically to prenatal neuroprotection.
“Today, thanks to better diagnostic technologies and methods, including prenatal diagnosis, advances in surgery and improved postoperative care, early survival [of congenital heart disease] is over 90%,” J. William Gaynor, MD, cardiac surgeon and Fetal Neuroprotection and Neuroplasticity Program director, said in the release. “However, with improved early outcomes has come the sobering recognition that there is an ongoing risk of late mortality, as well as significant morbidity, for these children.”
Recent research has indicated that fetuses with congenital heart disease have abnormal in utero brain development, which can result in delayed maturation, poor growth and white matter injury, according to the release. Initially, the program will focus on potential causes of abnormal brain development in this population. Researchers within the program will conduct clinical trials of potential prenatal interventions, with the first planned study assessing whether prenatal administration of progesterone to the mother can have a neuroprotective effect on the fetus.
“The lifetime continuum of care for congenital heart disease starts in utero,” N. Scott Adzick, MD, surgeon in chief at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said in the release. “We now have an opportunity to not only offer the best diagnostic care to the fetus with heart disease, but to also begin to explore ways in which we can optimize long-term outcomes from the neurocognitive perspective.”