Metabolic Maturation in infants born with CHD or SGA
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The pursuit of personalized care | Metabolic Maturation in infants born with congenital heart disease or small for gestational age (MatCo)
IRAS ID
318491
Contact name
RM Beattie
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
We know the first-year of any newborn’s life is really important. For those born early (premature) or with a serious life-threatening problem, such as congenital heart disease (CHD), this period is especially critical. Slow weight gain is common increasing the risk of dying, along with poorer longer-term health and scholastic outcomes. Importantly, parents worry a lot when their baby has trouble gaining enough weight.
Despite the best efforts of healthcare professionals one-in-three infants does not gain enough weight. We think this is because their overall metabolic system is maturing too slowly. In other words, despite drinking special milks, differences in the baby’s metabolism (i.e.chemical processes in the body which support life) makes it difficult for them to use nutrients (i.e.calories/protein), and we need to understand why. The way to do this is by studying the metabolome, which simply is the measure of the end products of metabolism in a baby’s wee (urine). By looking at this we can see what has happened to the nutrients as they go through the baby’s body. Measuring this will help us understand when, why and how the problem occurs and how we can tailor special milks, or provide nutritional supplements to better match their needs and help them to grow as well as healthy-infants.
This is a big problem affecting a large number of babies. From our own research, we know that growth and developmental outcomes matter to parents. Parents of those babies who do not grow well want to know why this happens, especially as many need extra hospital-admissions for feeding. This makes parents worry, as well as causing social and financial problems for families. The proposed work will start to answer these important questions, providing information about what nutrition supplements are required and when, to better support growth and reduce distress.
REC name
London - Camden & Kings Cross Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/LO/0740
Date of REC Opinion
22 Dec 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion