SCAI Mullins Lecture to Focus on Stenting for Congenital Heart Disease

April 28, 2010—The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) announced that John W. Moore, MD, will deliver the Mullins Lecture at the 33rd annual SCAI scientific sessions to be held May 5 through 8 in San Diego, California. Dr. Moore is the Director of Cardiology at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego and is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. The keynote lecture was named in honor of Charles E. Mullins, MD, FSCAI, who pioneered the use of stenting and other interventional procedures in pediatric cardiology.

The presentation, which will be delivered on Thursday, March 6, will focus on innovative uses of stents for treating congenital heart disease. Dr. Moore will discuss how stents are used today to treat congenital heart disease, highlighting several innovative current applications and new stent designs. These include the use of stenting for bridging totally blocked blood vessels, for creating and maintaining a passageway between the upper chambers on the right and left sides of the heart, and for treating patent ductus arteriosus, an opening between the aorta and pulmonary artery that fails to close shortly after birth. He will also discuss the growing awareness of the “mass effect” of stents and the potential for stents that are positioned inside blood vessels to compress nearby structures such as airways.

According to SCAI, Dr. Moore foresees exciting developments in the future including biodegradable and growth stents that avoid the problem of undersizing as a child grows and covered or coated stents that may prevent the obstruction of blood flow that results from overgrowth of tissue inside a stent. He will also explore the potential to create new pathways for blood flow, or shunts, using covered stents. In one innovative example, catheter-mounted magnets are used to align adjacent blood vessels when creating shunts with radiofrequency energy.

In addition, Dr. Moore will consider the resurgence of a catheter-based procedure called Fontan completion, which uses covered stents rather than open surgery. He will also discuss the creation of custom-made stents that can be positioned in the opening between the right ventricle and the pulmonary arteries to provide “landing pads” for catheter-implanted replacement pulmonary valves.