Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Cardiologist Bradley B. Keller, MD, and his research team are discovering details in the lab that explain how the heart is formed in the embryo. This knowledge improves the chances of doctors identifying fetuses who can benefit from intervention to treat congenital defects. Doctor’s in the Heart Center at Children’s are redefining what has typically been called early detection. With technologically advanced tools including echocardiography they are looking inside fetal hearts and spotting abnormalities months before babies are born. Through fetal diagnosis, doctors can actually see the heart and valve structures and detect the most serious form of heart disease in children by 20 weeks of gestation, the mid-point in pregnancy.
