Creation of a French South-Eastern Database and DNA-bank of Congenital Heart Disease to Explore the Genetic Pathways

Congenital heart defects are seen in 0,8% of life births. In France this means more than 5000 newborns per year. The south-east region of France is particularly affected as a result of a higher birth rate and consanguinity, when compared to other regions. The majority of congenital heart diseases remain unexplained. Genetic causes are indisputable but remain poorly understood. Genetic research needs the availability of a large-scale DNA collection, guided by a robust phenotypic classification. Such a DNA-bank has been created in Paris (CARREG DNA bank, created by the M3C reference centre for congenital heart diseases). Such a bank is currently unavailable in south-east France. To transport biological specimens from Marseille to Paris would be very expensive. In addition, the whole infrastructure required for correct diagnosis and classification of the congenital heart diseases, for sampling, for storage of the samples and genetic analysis, does exist in our AP-HM hospital and in our AMU research unit. For those reasons it is highly preferable to elaborate such a database and DNA-bank locally. The acronym SEA-HD (South-EAst-Heart-Diseases) would be used to name this DNA-bank