AHA awards grant to study rheumatic heart disease

The American Heart Association awarded the Children’s National Health System a grant to launch a rheumatic heart disease center, according to a press release.

The program will aim to develop strategies to improve prevention and diagnosis of rheumatic heart disease in disadvantaged countries and low-income communities in the U.S.

“While it’s often thought that we’ve already beaten rheumatic heart disease, data shows there’s no decrease in mortality rates in low-income countries,” Craig Sable, MD, associate division chief of cardiology of Children’s National Heart Institute, said in the release. “The disease in endemic in Sub-Saharan Africa, and some poverty-stricken communities in the U.S. are hit nearly as heard. We are thrilled to receive this funding from the AHA, which will help us close the research gap for this neglected disease and change the plight of millions of children around the world.”

James Dale, MD, chief of the division of infectious disease at the University of Tennessee in Memphis, will work in Cape Town, South Africa, on analyzing the immune response to Group A Streptococcal infection. The study aims to recruit 300 children aged 5 to 15 years.

Another researcher, Andrea Beaton, MD, a cardiologist at the Children’s National Heart Institute, will work to improve understanding and diagnosis of acute rheumatic fever. Beaton and colleagues aim to enroll over 1,000 children aged 3 to 18 years in Uganda.

David Watkins, MD, MPH, of the University of Washington in Seattle, will use international data to identify local gaps in delivery of health services and to measure costs to argue for economic benefit of disease prevention globally.

The AHA grant totals $3.7 million and Children’s National was one of four centers to receive grants under the AHA’s Strategically Focused Children’s Research Network.