Neurodevelopmental performance in children with CHD
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Neurodevelopmental performance in children with Congenital Heart Disease
IRAS ID
256217
Contact name
Serena Counsell
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Kings College London
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
Congenital heart disease (CHD) describes heart problems that develop before birth, affecting almost 1 in 100 babies in the UK. Survival of infants with CHD has improved greatly over the past 50 years, due to outstanding advances in diagnostics and heart surgery. Despite this, children with CHD do worse at school, with up to half of children experiencing problems with movement, coordination, memory, hyperactivity, attention, speech and language skills. This presents a large and growing public health problem, whilst the underlying cause remains largely unknown.
We have acquired a unique and growing cohort of neonates with CHD who have undergone high quality quantitative multimodal neuroimaging (diffusion MRI, measures of cortical folding, cerebral oxygen delivery, brain volumes, near infrared spectroscopy, NIRS) and who have had neurodevelopmental assessments at 2 years of age. We will undertake neurodevelopmental assessments at 4-6 years of age in a sub-group of 100 children.
The aim of this project is to increase our understanding of the neural substrate underpinning neurodevelopmental disorders in children with CHD by performing detailed analyses of these brain imaging data and undertaking neurodevelopmental assessments in early childhood.
Lay summary of study results: Congenital heart disease (CHD) describes heart problems that develop before birth, affecting almost 1 in 100 babies in the UK. Survival of infants with CHD has improved greatly over the past 50 years, due to outstanding advances in diagnostics and heart surgery. Despite this, children with CHD do worse at school, with up to half of children experiencing problems with movement, coordination, memory, hyperactivity, attention, speech and language skills. The aim of this project was to increase our understanding of why children with CHD may do less well in school by undertaking neurodevelopmental assessments in early childhood.
We found that children with CHD did not have more problems with executive functioning. However, children with CHD were more likely to have problems with attention and hyperactivity and have more difficulty forming relationships with other children than children without CHD. These problems were reduced in children who had a more cognitively stimulating home environment. Supporting parents to provide a cognitively stimulating home environment may improve outcomes in children with CHD.REC name
London - Stanmore Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/0451
Date of REC Opinion
2 Aug 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion