Pediheart Podcast #343: Can A Novel Autoantibody Test Accurately Predict Autoimmune Congenital Heart Block?

This week we speak with Professor Robert Hamilton of the University of Toronto about a recent case-control study in which his team identified a novel auto-antibody targeting a fetal cardiac protein that proved to have excellent sensitivity and specificity for the identification of fetuses that would develop heart block in fetal life in the offspring of women with maternal connective tissue disorders. How did the team in Toronto choose these particular target proteins? How well did this test perform in predicting heart block in pregnancies where there had been a prior pregnancy affected by block? Does this test possibly mean that fewer fetuses of mothers with connective tissue will need surveillance? Dr. Hamilton shares the details of this fascinating study this week. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2665-9913(25)00092-xWe also speak with Drs. David Ezon and Kenan Stern about the upcoming 16th Annual Mount Sinai Imaging Symposium - Conversations in Care: Cardiac Conundrums & 3D Echo Workshop which will be taking place at Mount Sinai on 5/31/25. Details are available at the following website:https://mssm.cloud-cme.com/course/courseoverview?P=5&EID=46043