A medical team headed by non-resident Indian, Deepak Srivastava, has pinned down a gene that can cause congenital cardiac defects. According to a PTI report, this discovery could increase the chances of saving children born with a condition involving holes in the chambers of their heart.
The study by University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center for which Srivastava, a pediatrician at the Centre, was senior author, is published in the online edition of Nature.
Children with defects in the gene, known as GATA-4, are born with holes connecting the chambers of their hearts. The gene finding, the researchers told The Wall Street Journal, is already being used to screen parents who might be carriers, and could eventually lead to a simple treatment for expectant mothers.
Known as septal defects, the holes can typically be patched up with surgery. Researchers studied an extended Dallas family with a history of heart defects, said Srivastava. After comparing the genetic makeup of family members with heart problems to those without, the researchers turned up the link to GATA-4.
About one in 100 new borns has a congenital heart abnormality, about half of which are septal defects.
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