Child Health

Professor Mark Danton is a Consultant Paediatric Cardiac Surgeon and Research Lead for Paediatric Cardiac Services at the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow.

Current Research

• Impact of Covid-19 on the Scottish congenital heart population

This work seeks to quantify how the Covid-19 pandemic affected the confenital cardiac population in terms of infection rates, vaccination uptake, Covid related hospital admissions and deaths.  The study is in collaboration with the Robertson Centre for Biostatistics, University of Glasgow and funded by Medical Research Scotland.

• Modelling Right Heart Function in Tetralogy of Fallot and the impact of Pulmonary Valve replacement

This study seeks to build patient-specific computational models of the right ventricle in repaired Tetralogy. Models will be used to quantify new parameters of ventricular mechanics.  The study is a collaboration with the Department of Mathematics, University of Glasgow and funded by the British Heart Foundation.

• National Outcomes of Surgery of the Proximal Aorta in Scotland

Recent NICOR reports suggested that 30-day survival for acute aortic dissection may be lower in Scotland compared to the remainder of the UK.  This study seeks to quantify the outcomes for surgery on the proximal aorta across Scotland over the past decade.  The research encompasses emergency and elective procedures including the recent developments of valve preservation, PEARS and Ross procedure.  Geographic patient and procedural factors for outcome will be determined.  The PI for this study is Mr George Gradinaru.

• Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing in Children with Repaired Tetralogy of Fallot

The department of exercise physiology at the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow performs cardiopulmonary exercise testing in children with cardiac and respiratory disease.  In this study, the maximal and submaximal CPET parameters are quantified and associations with clinical status and re-intervention determined.

• Group decision making in congenital heart disease

Congenital heart disease is inherently complex, encapsulating a vast array of morphologies, demographic cohorts and interventional options.  Good judgement, particularly regarding intervention, is paramount to benefit patients and minimise adverse outcome.   This research seeeks to investigate factors that influence clinical group decision making and to quantify decision performance with clinical outcome.  Preliminary work has surveyed the effect of remote video-conferencing, through MS Teams, on congenital multi-disciplinary meetings.  This research is a collaboration between congenital cardiac departments at the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow,  the Golden Jubilee National Hospital and School of Psychology and Neurosciences, University of Glasgow.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10916-023-01944-1.pdf

Updated 31/5/23

Dr Richard Ferguson is a paediatric cardiologist and electrophysiologist based at the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, Edinburgh. His research interests include heart rhythm abnormalities in children and congenital heart disease, sudden death in young people and preventative paediatric cardiology.   Richard holds an honorary contract at the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow.

Updated 31/5/23

Dr Alexander Fletcher is a clinical lecturer at the University of Glasgow and a Paediatric Cardiology Registrar at the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow.  Alex is following a career path in academic congenital cardiology with a focus on understanding disease drivers and mechanisms in patients with congenital heart disease.

His current research focuses on identifying novel mechanisms of disease in children and young adults with congenital and acquired heart disease.  Specifically Alex's research explores how fibrosis and calcification contribute to disease in aortopathy, right ventricular failure and bioprosthetic valve degeneration using a combination of basic science and non-invasive advanced imaging techniques (PET and MRI).  The longterm aim is to translate these findings into novel clinical imaging tools and development of treatment that improves the outcome of patients with heart disease.

updated 31/5/23

Dr Lindsey Hunter is a Consultant Paediatric & Fetal Cardiologist based at the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow.  Lindsey trained in Glasgow and London, completing her Fetal Cardiology Fellowship at the Evelina London Children's Hospital in 2014.  Lindsey has published fetal cardiology book chapters for world leading institutions, the Mayo Clinic, USA (2014 & 2020) and the Evelina London Children's Hospital (2018).  In addition, Lindsey has been involved in writing the national fetal cardiology standards for the UK.   Lindsey is involved in ongoing paediatric cardiology research with particular interest in fetal cardiology research.

Research Projects

• Principal investigator for FLEAT (Fetal Ebstein Anomaly and Tricuspid Valve Dysplasia) Registry with Sick Kids Hospital, Toronto, Canada
• Principal investigator for Effect of Fetal Aortic Valvuloplasty on outcomes (FASSprosp) An international, multicentre prospective observational cohort study with a comparison cohort (2023)
• Chief Investigator for Perinatal Management and Outcomes of 22q11 Deletion Syndrome - retrospective, multicentre international study with Columbia University, NYC, USA
• Chief Innvestigator for the Prenatal Right Aortic Arch and Double Arch Study (PRAADA 2 Study), UK multicentre study

Updated 31/5/23