Daniel E. Forsha, MD, MHS

Director, Cardiovascular Imaging Research; Medical Director, Cardiovascular Imaging Research; Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine; Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Kansas School of Medicine

Full Biography

Daniel Forsha, MD, MHS, Heart Center, was awarded a three-year, $649,538 Single Ventricle Research Fund (SVRF) Award from Additional Ventures.

The funding is being used on Dr. Forsha’s study, “A comprehensive and non-invasive assessment of skeletal muscle in adolescents with single ventricle circulation.”

Single ventricular disease is a congenital heart defect (CHD) in which one lower chamber (ventricle) does not develop. This results in the heart having only one pumping chamber. Red blood (blood with oxygen) mixes with blue blood (blood without oxygen) within the heart. The consequences of this type of CHD are significant and typically require three open heart surgeries by the age of three years, with the first occurring shortly after birth.

As Dr. Forsha explains, modern surgeries and medical care have improved the life span and quality of life for patients with a single ventricle. Unfortunately, because of their unique hearts and circulation, they usually do not survive to a typical old age, and many suffer ongoing hardships throughout their life. Dr. Forsha’s study focuses on adolescents who have had the Fontan procedure (the third of the surgeries), which changes the way blood is circulated.

Dr. Forsha and his team have clues from past research studies that improving the skeletal muscle system with exercise can help improve the overall health and circulation of anyone, but especially those with a single ventricle. To better understand the process, the team is studying all aspects of the skeletal muscle system in a group of teenagers with single ventricle and a group of teenagers with normal hearts. The goal is to learn more about how muscular strength, size, quality, oxygen use, and activation differ between those groups and how they impact measures of heath like fitness, heart function and frailty.

The team is bringing new testing methods to this single ventricle research study that will provide better and more accurate information while also being non-invasive and pain-free for the study participants.

“The results of this testing will provide new information on which areas of skeletal muscle health we should focus on (strength, size, activation) to best improve the health of our single ventricle patients. We plan to use these tests to design a new clinical trial researching which types of exercise improve their skeletal muscle health in the most optimal way,” said Dr. Forsha. “We believe that better understanding the skeletal muscle system can lead to important improvements in the lives of our patients with single ventricle.”

The research team is made up of Dr. Forsha and David White, PhD (Children’s Mercy) who are experts in single ventricle heart disease, and Trent Herda, PhD (University of Kansas) and Robin Shook, PhD, (Children’s Mercy) experts in muscle testing.