Cardiovascular Diseases and Child Development
Research Program
Where we are
SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital
Related websites
SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital Our research efforts include a major clinical component that seeks to address a specific set of clinical challenges. The impact of our research on the health system and society in general could be far-reaching as most of our projects focus on health issues and diseases with high morbidity and mortality rates.
Our hospital is a RCSU-accredited reference centre for congenital heart surgery and for the treatment and management of paediatric arrhythmias. We are also a RCSU centre for inherited heart diseases and one of the coordinating centres for the European Network in Paediatric Cardiology.
The SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital is now the leading centre for cardiac surgeries with over 300 surgeries per year, the highest in the country, including about 165 surgeries a year with extracorporeal circulation. It is also both a national and European reference centre not only in terms of the number of surgeries but, more importantly, for its extremely low (<1%) surgical mortality rates. Our team coordinates, jointly with other basic research groups, the European network in addition to our investigations into the pathophysiology of some of these diseases.
The group has been a member of the Maternal and Child Health and Development Research Network (SAMID) since 2018 and a designated emerging research group by the AGAUR since 2016 (Government of Catalonia, SGR reference).
Research lines
- Impact of congenital heart disease on neurodevelopment: from foetus to adulthood, focusing on identifying the mechanisms leading to brain injury in patients with heart disease undergoing cardiac surgery, with the aim of identifying predictors of poor prognosis.
- Research on paediatric arrhythmias and sudden death (SD) syndrome, on SD risk stratification, exploring possible new SD molecular markers and developing new non-invasive diagnostic strategies.
- Cardiac functioning and monitoring: computational analysis and advanced imaging techniques, developing computational models and new imaging techniques for the study of cardiac functioning as well as the development of new monitoring systems.
Scientific objectives
- To develop and validate biomarkers for the diagnosis of post-op neuronal lesions.
- To develop new strategies to monitor brain function.
- To develop new preventive and therapeutic strategies to reduce brain injury associated with cardiac surgery.
- To describe and functionally validate new genes implicated in SD.
- To develop computational models to virtually study the pathophysiological behaviour of congenital heart diseases.
Area/Field of expertise
Our group is made up of clinicians from different specialities (neonatologists, cardiologists, intensivists, surgeons, etc.) as well as psychologists, biologists, molecular biologists, lab technicians and engineering scientists who together offer a multidisciplinary approach to the challenges posed by research into cardiovascular diseases in the early stages of life. As well as deploying the most advanced clinical diagnostic methodologies (such as MRI, integrated amplitude electroencephalogram, brain oxygenation monitors, etc.), our laboratory performs basic lab techniques needed to measure brain injury and oxidative stress biomarkers.
We have devised experimental models to study brain injury in an animal model of paediatric extracorporeal circulation. This not only allows us to observe the mechanisms implicated in the injury but also to contemplate possible new therapeutic strategies.
Group members
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Jefe de Grupo
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Investigador
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Investigador
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Jefe de Grupo
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Investigador
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Investigador
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Ayudante de investigación
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Técnico
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Investigador post-doc
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Investigador
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Investigador
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Investigador
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Ana Pilar García García
Investigador
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Investigador
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Bosco Alejandro Moscoso Garrido
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Investigador pre-doc
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Ayudante de investigación
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Ayudante de investigación
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Ayudante de investigación
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Ayudante de investigación
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Agustin Lujan Carrillo
Gestión
Last Publications
- Martínez-Barrios E, Greco A, César-Díaz S, Díez-López C, Cruzalegui JC, Nuria Díez Escuté, Patricia Cerralbo Martín, Chipa F, Zschaeck-Luzardo I, Grassi S, Oliva A, Balderrábano N, Toro R, Sarquella-Brugada G and Campuzano O Appropriate time interval to update ambiguous genetic diagnosis in inherited arrhythmogenic syndromes. iScience . 28(5): 112300-112300.
- Zanchi, B, Monachino, G, Faraci, FD, Metaldi, M, Brugada, P, Sarquella-Brugada G, Behr, ER, Brugada-Terradellas J, Crotti, L, Belhassen, B and Conte, G Synthetic electrocardiograms for Brugada syndrome: from data generation to expert cardiologists evaluation european heart journal - digital health . : .
- Pons, Maria Isabel, Olivares, Andy L, Mill, Jordi, Matos, Jose Novo, Garcia P, Cerrada, Inma, Guy, Anna, Morales Ferez, Xabier, Hutchinson, J Ciaran, Simcock, Ian C, Arthurs, Owen J, Cook, Andrew C, Fuentes, Virginia Luis and Camara, Oscar Cardiomyopathy and thrombogenesis in cats through left atrial morphological and fluid dynamics analysis. SCIENTIFIC REPORTS . 15(1): .
Projects
- Project name:
- UNCAN-Connect: Decentralized Collaborative Network for Advancing Cancer Research and Innovation
- Leader
- Joan Sánchez de Toledo
- Funding entities:
- European Commission
- Code
- 101215206
- Starting - finishing date:
- 2025 - 2030
- Project name:
- CARDIOGAME (el juego cooperativo familiar de las cardiopatías congénitas)
- Leader
- Maria Pia Cassanello Peñarroya
- Funding entities:
- ZZZZ_O.H.S.J.D.-Curia Provincial, Provincia San Juan de Dios de España
- Code
- PFNR0219
- Starting - finishing date:
- 2025 - 2026
- Project name:
- Cardiac characterization of children with TDD: Understanding the Inter-Crisis period (ICCC-TDD)
- Leader
- Georgia Sarquella Brugada
- Funding entities:
- Fundació Privada per a la Recerca i la Docència Sant Joan de Déu - FSJD, Martínez Barrios, Estefanía, TANGO02 Research Foundation
- Code
- TANGO2-v1
- Starting - finishing date:
- 2025 - 2026
Theses
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Estudio de la función cardíaca en niños con cardiopatía congénita estructural. Impacto de la cirugía durante el primer año de vida sobre la función cardíaca
- Author
- Walter, Carin Cristina
- Institution
- UNIVERSIDAD DE BARCELONA
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Factores Postnatales y Prequirúrgicos Predictivos de Alteraciones en el Neurodesarrollo Temprano en Cardiopatía Congénita
- Institution
- UNIVERSIDAD DE BARCELONA
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Cambios de remodelado ventricular en enfermedades neuromusculares
- Author
- César Diaz, Sergio
- Institution
- UNIVERSIDAD DE BARCELONA
News
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Detecting long QT syndrome early could help reduce the impact of sudden infant death
A team led by Dra. Georgia Sarquella (IRSJD) and Drs. Ramon Brugada and Oscar Campuzano (IDIBGI) provide new diagnostic measures to prevent sudden infant death from long QT syndrome.
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Sant Joan de Déu participates in the new Barcelona Medical Photonics Network
Eight prominent health institutions in the Barcelona area, their research institutes and ICFO join forces through the creation of a network to bring cutting-edge photonic technologies to hospitals.
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Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu and ICFO create a joint lab to improve neonatal and paediatric health care
The new joint laboratory will advance the use and development of photonic technologies to understand, diagnose, monitor and treat paediatric diseases.