Latest report from the CRY Centre for Cardiac Pathology

The CRY Centre for Cardiac Pathology is a national referral centre for the pathological investigation of young sudden death with an established national database.

While the world struggled to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, facing lockdowns and alternative or reduced work schedules, the CRY laboratory team stood tall throughout, continuing to provide our vital service in these challenging times.

Professor Mary Sheppard is proud of the hard work done by all the team.

We had 285 heart cases and 81 spleen cases from January to April 2020 (see graph above).

Our database forms a valuable source of research within St George’s clinical cardiology team, resulting in publications in high-impact journals.

We are also increasingly getting splenic tissue for genetic testing as genetic analysis combined with clinical follow-up will give valuable information in the future for families.

We were able to make a diagnosis of the cardiac cause of death in all cases with majority being sudden adult death or cardiomyopathies (75% of cases), all of which are important for family screening.

In January, we welcomed fellows Dr Terezia Tavacova (a paediatric cardiology trainee from Prague, the Czech Republic) and Dr Chiarra Dale Carbonarre (a forensic pathology trainee from Verona, Italy) to the department. They have both received training in cardiac examination which they will apply once they return to their countries.

This highlights our role in training the future generation of cardiac pathologists and cardiologists. Their contributions to the research of sudden death in congenital heart disease and sudden death in obesity cardiomyopathy will be vital in progressing our understanding of these conditions.

Professor Mary Sheppard was invited to the editorial board of leading journal Cardiovascular Pathology, president elect of Pathology Section of Royal Society of Medicine, and the Board of National Coroners pilot study of sudden cardiac death in England.

We say goodbye to our Lab Technician Antonella Cogoni and wish her all the best in her future endeavours.

Luciana Bicahlo will be stepping into the role and we are delighted to welcome her to the team.

To learn more about the research completed at the CRY CCP and Professor Mary Sheppard’s work, you can watch her presentation at the 2019 CRY Family Research Day on our YouTube channel here:

https://bit.ly/2Dmg6RU