In addition to providing exceptional patient care and education, Texas Children's Heart Center is dedicated to research that will create more positive outcomes for patients living with heart disease. The pediatric heart transplant team physicians and researchers are involved in the following research projects:

• Viral mechanisms of cardiac rejection in pediatric transplant patients

• Leukocyte suppression and outcomes in pediatric orthotopic cardiac transplantation

• Abdominal pain in pediatric heart transplant patients as a sign of graft vasculopathy

• Noninvasive prediction of acute transplant rejection

• Zenapax trial, used as induction therapy in cardiac transplantation

• NIH sirolimus for coronary graft vasculopathy in children

• Evaluation of BNP, or B-type natriuretic peptide, levels in the pediatric population – utility in children with status post-cardiac transplantation

For more information about these research projects, please e-mail Dr. Jeffrey A. Towbin.