My research focus is on how cardiac function is affected by heart surgery early in life. Around 1% of children are born with heart defects and the proportion of patients with severe defects is increasing. Modern care with early diagnosis, surgical treatment and post-operative care and follow-up has resulted in more patients surviving into adulthood. Morbidity, especially heart failure, is common and progressive among these patients, however the mechanisms are not fully understood. How to tailor surgical interventions and care to each patient is also being debated.

In our research we use advanced magnetic resonance imaging and patient-specific cardiac modeling to learn more about the mechanisms behind this progressive decline in cardiac function that follows open heart surgery early in life. We hope to find novel measures to better guide therapy and predict outcome in this group of patients.