MARY T. DONOFRIO, M.D., FAAP, FASE, FACC VanMetre Companies Endowed Chair of Fetal Cardiology
Mary T. Donofrio, M.D., is a Professor of Pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine and is a Pediatric and Fetal Cardiologist at Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C. She is the VanMetre Companies Endowed Chair of Fetal Cardiology; Medical Director of Prenatal Cardiology; Director of the Critical Care Delivery Program and Advanced Cardiac Imaging Fellowship; and Co-director of the Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Outcome Program. Dr. Donofrio is the Founding President of the Fetal Heart Society, a non-profit international organization created to advance the field of fetal cardiovascular care and science through collaborative research, education and mentorship. Dr. Donofrio is an international expert in fetal cardiology and is known for her work in
establishing multidisciplinary protocols for specialized delivery room management of babies diagnosed in utero with complex congenital heart disease. She has collaborated with scientists in the field to study how alterations in the fetal circulation affect in utero brain development as well as to investigate potential treatment strategies to improve neurodevelopmental outcomes in babies with congenital heart disease. Dr. Donofrio has published over 150 papers, including the American Heart Association Scientific Statement on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Fetal Cardiac Disease, the American Society of Echocardiography Guidelines and Recommendations for Performance of the Fetal Echocardiogram, and the Call to Action Report on Prioritizing Delivery Room Care for Neonates with Critical Congenital Heart Disease.
Address: 111 Michigan Ave. NW; Washington, D.C., 20010
Department: Cardiology
Recent publications
2024 | September
Jacobwitz M, Kapse K, Ngwa J, De Asis-Cruz J, Wu Y, Govindan R, Donofrio MT, Wessel DL, du Plessis AJ, Limperopoulos C, Andescavage A. “In-Vivo Placental Volumes and Placental Growth Trajectories are Abnormal in Fetuses with Congenital Heart Disease.” International Federation of Placental Associations 2024 Conference. Montreal, Quebec. September 2024. (NIH travel award)
Jacobwitz M, Kapse K, Ngwa J, Donofrio MT, Wessel DL, du Plessis AJ, Limperopoulos C, Andescavage M. “Impaired Feto-Placental Growth in Congenital Heart Disease Detected Prenatally via Quantitative MRI.” International Federation of Placental Associations 2024 Conference. Montreal, Quebec. September 2024.
2024 | July
De Asis-Cruz J, Kalsi IA, Kapse K, Vezina G, Donofrio MT, Limperopoulos C. Decreased gray matter density in subcortical structures in newborns with complex congenital heart disease. NeoHeart 2024. (One of the top three conference abstracts.) New York, NY. July 2024.
2024 | April
Jacobwitz M, Kapse K, Ngwa J, De Asis-Cruz J, Govindan R, Donofrio MT, Wessel D, du Plessis A, Limperopoulos C, Andescavage N. In-vivo placental volumes and placental growth trajectories are abnormal in fetuses with Congenital Heart Disease. Children’s National Hospital 14th Annual Research, Education and Innovation Week. Washington, D.C. April 2024.
2023 | November
Thomas AR, Levy PT, Donofrio MT, Law B, Joynt C, Gupta R, Elshenawy S, Reed D, Pavlek LR, Shepherd J, Gowda SH, Johnson BA, Abdulhayoglu E, Valencia E, Guseh S, Ball MK, Ali N. Call to action: prioritizing delivery room care for neonates with critical congenital heart disease. J Perinatol. 2023 Nov 18. doi: 10.1038/s41372-023-01828-9. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37980393
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37980393/
De Asis-Cruz J, Andescavage N, Donofrio MT, Vezina G, Wessel D, du Plessis A, Limperopoulos C. Disrupted Functional Brain Connectome in the Fetus With Congenital Heart Disease. Circ Res. 2023 Nov 10;133(11):959-961. doi: 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.123.323276. Epub 2023 Oct 12. PMID: 37823309
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37823309/
2023 | October
Andescavage NN, Pradhan S, Gimovsky AC, Kapse K, Donofrio MT, Cheng JJ, Sharker Y, Wessel D, du Plessis AJ, Limperopoulos C. Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy of Brain Metabolism in Fetuses With Congenital Heart Disease. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2023 Oct 17;82(16):1614-1623. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2023.08.013. PMID: 37821172
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37821172/
2023 | July
Moon-Grady AJ, Donofrio MT, Gelehrter S, Hornberger L, Kreeger J, Lee W, Michelfelder E, Morris SA, Peyvandi S, Pinto NM, Pruetz J, Sethi N, Simpson J, Srivastava S, Tian Z. Guidelines and Recommendations for Performance of the Fetal Echocardiogram: An Update from the American Society of Echocardiography. J Am Soc Echocardiogr. 2023 Jul;36(7):679-723. doi: 10.1016/j.echo.2023.04.014. Epub 2023 May 24. PMID: 37227365
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37227365/