Research

The faculty and fellows in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology have a wide variety of research interests in clinical, translational, and basic investigation related to childhood heart disease.

Research Faculty

Piers Barker, MD
Areas of interest: Fetal cardiology, cardiac imaging (echo, MRI)

Michael Camitta, MD
Areas of interest: Cardiac imaging (echo), quality improvement

Michael J. Campbell, MD
Areas of interest: Cardiac imaging (echo, MRI)

Michael P. Carboni, MD
Areas of interest: Arrhythmias, heart failure/transplantation, multicenter heart failure and transplant studies including PUMPkin network (mechanical cardiac assist devices for children)

Gregory A. Fleming, MD, MSCI
Areas of interest: Assessment and development of interventional therapies for children with congenital heart disease, perioperative management of infants and children with congenital heart disease requiring surgery

Kevin D. Hill, MD, MS
Areas of interest: Outcomes, drug and device trials, short and long term safety and efficacy of interventions and hemodynamic effects of interventions

Salim F. Idriss MD, PhD
Areas of interest: Arrhythmias

Andrew Paul Landstrom, MD, PhD
Areas of interest: Genetic and molecular mechanisms of sudden cardiac arrest in children

Jennifer Li, MD, MHS
Areas of interest: Hypertension, thrombosis, heart failure clinical trials

Andrew Walker McCrary, MD
Areas of interest: Non-invasive assessment of cardiac function in fetal to adult patients with congenital heart disease

Angelo Milazzo, MD
Areas of interest: Fetal cardiology, cardiac imaging (echo)

Stephen Gary Miller, MD
Areas of interest: Fetal cardiology, cardiac imaging (echo)

Neeta Sethi, MD
Areas of interest: Pediatric cardiac imaging, fetal/prenatal cardiology

Zebulon Zachary Spector, MD
Areas of interest: Pediatric and congenital electrophysiology

Clinical Research

Participation in trials conducted by the Pediatric Heart Network funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute:

  • Hypoplastic left heart syndrome
  • Kawasaki disease
  • Cardiomyopathy
  • Marfan syndrome
  • Atrioventricular canal
  • Fontan​

Other clinical trials

  • RSV vaccines
  • Hypertension
  • Heart failure
  • Thrombosis
  • Supraventricular tachycardia

Cardiac imaging

  • 3D echo
  • Torsion
  • Strain-rate
  • MRI

Assessment of various devices to repair congenital cardiac lesions

  • Atrial septal defect/patent foramen ovale (device occluder)
  • Ventricularr septal defect (device occluder)
  • Coarctation of the aorta (stents)
  • Cutting balloon for relief of pulmonary artery obstruction
  • Percutaneous pulmonary valve

Outcomes assessment following

  • Congenital heart surgery
  • Radiofrequency ablation
  • Heart transplantation
  • Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD)

Translational/Basic Research

  • Stability of Cardiac Response to Pacing
    Study of the complex and nonlinear response of the cardiac electrical system to rapid pacing in order to understand and potentially prevent the transition from a stable to an unstable cardiac rhythm utilizing multifaceted experimental and theoretical methods to drive the development of computer models.

Fellow Research

Current and recent fellows have worked on the following projects:

  • Glycogen Storage Disease/Pompe Disease clinical trials
  • Outcomes of children undergoing surgery in the Society of Thoracic Surgery Congenital Heart Database
  • Pediatric hypertension clinical trials
  • Endothelial signaling pathways that regulate angiogenesis and vascular remodeling
  • Doppler assessment of mesenteric artery flow in Sano vs. BT shunts in HLHS

Clinical Trials

Jennifer Li, MD, Chief of Pediatric Cardiology Research, has several research interests including pediatric hypertension and hyperlipidemia, heart failure in patients with congenital heart disease, thrombosis in patients with congenital heart disease, and enzyme replacement in Pompe disease.
 
For further information about clinical trials currently being conducted in the Division of Cardiology, please visit Dukechildrens.org.