Current research
Cardio-Obstetrics & Maternal Congenital Heart DiseasE
Significant advancements in medical care have allowed women with maternal congenital heart disease (CHD) to survive to childbearing age, resulting in an increased prevalence of cardiovascular disease in pregnancy. Although pregnancy and its associated hemodynamic changes may be well tolerated in some, pregnancy may increase the risk of volume overload, development of arrhythmias, and progressive cardiac dysfunction in others. The presence of maternal CHD is also a major determinant for neonatal morbidity. Overall, pregnancies complicated by maternal CHD are at an increased risk for adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes compared to the general obstetric population. Our translational team focuses on optimizing both delivery coordination and planning for this high-risk population as well as understanding molecular mechanisms that underlie normal and abnormal physiological changes of the cardiovascular system in pregnancy.​​
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Across ten years, women who have had Fontan procedures to treat their univentricular hearts were observed to see how such procedures may have impacted their pregnancies. Their babies showed higher rates of being smaller than what is expected by their gestational age, being born prematurely, and being admitted to the NICU.
In pregnancies by older mothers, vascular resistance was found to be associated with weight percentile at birth.
Correlations were found between various maternal hemodynamic metrics. Ultimately, the best predictor for middle cerebral artery pulsatility index was central systolic blood pressure. Thus, maternal hemodynamic metrics can serve as a proxy for fetal cardiac health.
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