Design and implementation of multicenter pediatric and congenital studies with cardiovascular magnetic resonance: Big data in smaller bodies.

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) has become the reference standard for quantitative and qualitative assessment of ventricular function, blood flow, and myocardial tissue characterization. There is a preponderance of large CMR studies and registries in adults; However, similarly powered studies are lacking for the pediatric and congenital heart disease (PCHD) population. To date, most CMR studies in children are limited to small single or multicenter studies, thereby limiting the conclusions that can be drawn. Within the PCHD CMR community, a collaborative effort has been successfully employed to recognize knowledge gaps with the aim to embolden the development and initiation of high-quality, large-scale multicenter research. In this publication, we highlight the underlying challenges and provide a practical guide toward the development of larger, multicenter initiatives focusing on PCHD populations, which can serve as a model for future multicenter efforts.

Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:Michael DiLorenzo reports a relationship with GE Healthcare that includes: funding grants. Mark Fogel reports a relationship with Rocket Pharmaceuticals Inc that includes: consulting or advisory. Mark Fogel reports a relationship with CMP Pharma that includes: funding grants. Andrew Powell reports a relationship with Siemens Medical Solutions USA Inc that includes: consulting or advisory. Shaine Morris reports a relationship with Aytu BioPharma Inc that includes: non-financial support. Kanwal Farooqi reports a relationship with Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation that includes: funding grants. Jonathan Soslow reports a relationship with Pfizer Inc that includes: consulting or advisory. Jonathan Soslow reports a relationship with Sarepta Therapeutics Inc that includes: consulting or advisory. Jonathan Soslow reports a relationship with Immunoforge that includes: consulting or advisory. Heynric Grotenhuis serves as an associate editor for JCMR. Mark Fogel and Andrew Powell serve as members of the editorial board for JCMR. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

(Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)