Structural Heart Disease Program

The Structural Heart Disease Program in the Cardiovascular Research Center is designed to maintain a collaborative research environment for structural heart disease investigators at Mayo Clinic.

The Structural Heart Disease Program allows our researchers to launch and conduct basic and clinical studies on innovative diagnostic techniques and treatment methods. It also allows researchers to understand the natural history and clinical outcomes of structural heart diseases after a new diagnostic and treatment method is tried.

The program focuses on:

  • Congenital heart disease.
  • Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
  • Marfan syndrome.
  • Pericardial disease.
  • Valvular heart disease.

The program is integrated with cardiovascular imaging, which is an integral part of investigating structural heart disease.

Research portfolio

  • Diagnostics: Clinical research is performed using multiple imaging methods, such as echocardiography, computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. This research also includes biomarkers, invasive diagnostic hemodynamics and artificial intelligence-enabled methods. The goal is to improve diagnostic methods that rule out or confirm structural heart disease. The goal is also to determine the severity of the disease, identify people at the highest risk, and indicate when to intervene surgically or minimally invasively.
  • Clinical history, clinical outcomes and epidemiology: Clinical research is performed using large electronic patient databases in a retrospective or prospective manner to learn more about structural heart diseases in the community and in the referral population. This research can help identify incidence and prevalence of these diseases; outcomes such as survival; hospitalization; best time of intervention; and medical predictors of high risk.
  • Evaluation of novel transcatheter technologies: Some structural heart diseases, in particular valvular heart disease and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and congenital heart disease can be treated with minimally invasive transcatheter devices and medicine delivery. Our program is part of multiple multicenter U.S. trials evaluating these new transcatheter technologies.
  • Evaluation of novel medical therapies: Some structural heart diseases, such as pericardial disease, valvular heart disease and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, can be treated or controlled with new medicines. Our program is part of multiple multicenter U.S. trials, some of them started at Mayo Clinic, to evaluate these new medical therapies.