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Measuring Heart Health in Both Term, Preterm and Unwell Newborn Babies With an Advanced Ultrasound Method: Speckle Tracking Echocardiography

NCT07364682 · Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING · Type: OBSERVATIONAL · Enrollment: 190

Last updated 2026-01-26

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

This study aims to improve how neonatologists check the heart function of newborn babies, especially those who are sick. While standard heart ultrasound scans are useful, a more advanced and sensitive technique called 2D speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) can detect subtle problems with how the heart muscle squeezes and relaxes. This may allow doctors to spot potential issues earlier.

Our research will take place at Birmingham Women's Hospital. The investigators will perform these advanced, non-invasive heart scans on several groups of babies:

1. Healthy term and premature babies, to establish a "normal" range of heart function.
2. Babies who are unwell with specific conditions, including those with brain injury due to lack of oxygen at birth (HIE), chronic lung disease of prematurity (BPD), a hole in the diaphragm (CDH), or high blood pressure in their lungs (aPHN).

The heart scan is a standard, painless procedure. Using STE does not require any extra scanning time or cause any additional discomfort to the baby; the special images are taken during the routine scan. For many of the sick babies, these scans are already part of their normal clinical care.

The main goals of this observational study are to see if STE is a feasible and reliable tool in newborns, to establish normal values for healthy babies, and to track how heart function changes in sick babies during their illness and recovery.

Ultimately, the investigators hope this research will provide doctors with a better tool to assess heart health in newborns. This could lead to earlier, more accurate detection of heart problems and help guide treatment decisions to improve outcomes for these vulnerable infants.

Conditions

  • Premature Baby
  • Pulmonary Hypertension of Newborn
  • Hypoxic Ischaemic Encephalopathy (HIE)
  • Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia
  • Chronic Lung DIsease

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Birmingham Women's NHS Foundation Trust

    lead OTHER_GOV

Eligibility

Min Age
0 Minutes
Max Age
8 Weeks
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2026-02-01
Primary Completion
2028-02-01
Completion
2028-03-01

Countries

  • United Kingdom

Study Locations

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Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT07364682 on ClinicalTrials.gov