Dr. Suryakant K. Shah is a pediatric cardiologist at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the Janeway Children's Health and Rehabilitation Centre.

His present research projects include long-term outcome of coarctation repair. Coarctation of the aorta is defect that develops in the fetus in which there is a narrowing of the aortic arch, the main blood artery that delivers blood from the left ventricle of the heart to the rest of the body. About 10 per cent of newborns with congenital heart disease have coarctation of the aorta. Recoarctation can occur in some patients.

Dr. Shah is also involved in a CIHR-funded project on arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC), with Drs. Sean Connors, Patrick Parfrey and Bridget Fernandez and Christina Templeton of Memorial University. ARVC-afflicted heart muscle is replaced over time by fibrous and fat-filled tissue. This appears in patches at first almost always in the right ventricle, although the left side of the heart can also be affected. The disease usually leads to disordered electrical activity in the heart, and often eventually interferes with the heart's blood-pumping action. ARVC can have widely different symptoms even in the Newfoundland families who share a common set of genetic markers located on a single chromosome.

Dr. Shah is also researching the Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) long-term outcome. TOF consists of large ventricular septal defect or a hole in the wall separating the right and left ventricles and obstructed blood flow to the lungs. The pulmonary arteries may be small as well. These defects cause the child to be cyanotic with a bluish color to the lips, nailbeds and skin, caused by blood that is low in oxygen. Less than normal amounts of blood go to the lungs because of the obstruction from the pulmonary stenosis and smaller size of the pulmonary artery.

Dr. Shah is also involved in surveillance of acute rheumatic fever in children in Canada and Kawasaki disease in children in Newfoundland.