Howaida El-Said, M.D., Ph.D.

Bio

Dr. Howaida El-Said is the director of the cardiac catheterization laboratory at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego and professor of clinical pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine. She is board certified in pediatric cardiology as well as in adult congenital heart disease.

Dr. El-Said completed her pediatrics residency, pediatric cardiology fellowship, imaging fellowship and interventional pediatric cardiology fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. She trained under the founder and father of interventional pediatric cardiology, Dr. Charles Mullins, which gave her vast exposure to the most complex adult congenital heart disease cases.

After completing her medical training in 2000, Dr. El-Said became an associate pediatric cardiologist at Baylor before coming to San Diego. She performs close to half of the diagnostic and interventional procedures at the Rady Children's cardiac catheterization laboratory (300 cases/year). The majority of her procedures are on neonates and children. She specializes in patent ductus arteriosus stenting, premature PDA closure, radiofrequency pulmonary valve perforation in pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular septum, and percutaneous pulmonary valve placement. Thirty percent of her catheterization cases are adults with congenital heart disease.

Dr. El-Said helped found Rady Children’s single ventricle multidisciplinary clinic for Fontan patients and is active in Fontan outcomes research to improve outcomes. Additionally, she helped initiate the home monitoring program for infants with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and PDA stenting, which was created to improve survival for vulnerable infants and to optimize their neurodevelopmental outcomes.
Dr. El-Said has been practicing for over 20 years and remains an active clinical researcher, having authored over 100 publications. She has also been active in the interventional community nationally and internationally. She was the chair of the CHD council at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (2020-2022) and selected as SCAI’s program director for 2024.

Dr. El-Said is a mother of three young adults and enjoys swimming and cooking in her spare time.

Publications

Safety and Short-Term Outcomes for Infants < 2.5 kg Undergoing PDA Device Closure: A C3PO Registry Study.
Barry OM, Gudausky TM, Balzer DT, Bocks ML, Boe BA, Callahan R, El-Said H, Farias MJ, Foerster S, Goldstein BH, Holzer RJ, Janssen D, Levy P, O'Byrne ML, Rahman G, Sathanandam S, Shahanavaz S, Whiteside W, Turner ME

Chronic active Epstein-Barr virus and hydroa vacciniforme-like lymphoproliferative disorder in a pediatric patient complicated by fatal ruptured cerebral artery aneurysm.
Yi T, Steinberg J, Olson S, El-Said H, Mo J, Anderson E, Gloude N, Schiff D

Surgical Mitral Valve Replacement Using a Catheter-Based Melody(TM) Valve in a Landing Zone Constructed With a PTFE-Covered Expandable Cheatham-Platinum(TM) Stent.
El-Said H, Hussein A, Ganta S, Ryan J, Nigro J

Transcatheter Hepatic Conduit-Azygous Vein Connection Reduces Pulmonary Arteriovenous Malformations in a Cyanotic Fontan Patient.
Ratnayaka K, Wei ZA, Ryan JR, Heyden CM, Narayan HK, Slesnick TC, Lederman RJ, Moore JW, Yoganathan AP, El-Said HG

Exercise Stress Echocardiography in Kawasaki Disease Patients with Coronary Aneurysms.
Tedla BA, Burns JC, Tremoulet AH, Shimizu C, Gordon JB, El-Said H, Golding F, Davis CK, Dummer KB

Institutional Trend in Device Selection for Transcatheter PDA Closure in Premature Infants.
Guyon P, Duster N, Katheria A, Heyden C, Griffin D, Steinbergs R, Moreno Rojas A, Ratnayaka K, El-Said HG

Selective Use of Pulmonary Vasodilators in Patients with Fontan Physiology.
Glenn T, Duster N, Dwek J, Silva-Sepulveda J, El-Said HG

Pulmonary Atresia With Intact Ventricular Septum: From Radiofrequency Perforation to Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve.
Dreger NJ, Herrick NL, Guyon PW Jr, Moore JW, El-Said HG

Aortopulmonary collaterals: An etiology for pediatric tracheostomy hemorrhage.
Stramiello JA, Friesen TL, Rao A, Ratnayaka K, Moore J, El-Said H, Brigger MT

Neonatal Myocardial Infarction: A Proposed Algorithm for Coronary Arterial Thrombus Management.
El-Sabrout H, Ganta S, Guyon P, Ratnayaka K, Vaughn G, Perry J, Kimball A, Ryan J, Thornburg CD, Tucker S, Mo J, Hegde S, Nigro J, El-Said H

Selective Valve Removal for Melody Valve Endocarditis: Practice Variations in a Multicenter Experience.
Davtyan A, Guyon PW, El-Sabrout HR, Ponder R, Ramchandar N, Weber R, Zayed W, Ratnayaka K, Nigro JJ, Moore JW, Bauser-Heaton H, Alshawabkeh L, Reeves RR, Levi D, Aboulhosn J, Justino H, Bradley J, El-Said HG

Concerns Regarding the Expanded Use of the One-Step Technique for Simultaneous Landing Zone Stenting and Placement of the Melody Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve.
Hernandez J, Vettukattil J, El-Said H

Interpreting Quality Improvement When Introducing New Technology: A Collaborative Experience in ASD Device Closures.
Yeh MJ, Shirley L, Balzer DT, Boe BA, El-Said H, Foerster S, Gauvreau K, Gudausky TM, Hainstock MR, Maschietto N, Nicholson GT, Quinn BP, Shahanavaz S, Trucco S, Whiteside W, Bergersen L

Laparoscopic Surgery Requiring Abdominal Insufflation in Patients With Congenital Heart Disease.
Herrick NL, Bickler S, Maus T, Kim YY, Aboulhosn JA, Nigro J, El-Said H, Bhatt AB, Alshawabkeh L

Purpose-Built Transcatheter Cavopulmonary Anastomosis Device Requirements: Multi-Modality Imaging Evaluation.
El-Sabrout HR, Ryan JR, Hegde SR, El-Said HG, Nigro JJ, Moore JW, Ratnayaka K

Long-term Results Using Glutaraldehyde-treated Homograft Pericardium in Congenital Heart Surgery.
Gluck TM, Lamberti JJ, El-Said H, Devaney EJ, Murthy RA

Prevalence of Venovenous Shunting and High-Output State Quantified with 4D Flow MRI in Patients with Fontan Circulation.
Raimondi F, Martins D, Coenen R, Panaioli E, Khraiche D, Boddaert N, Bonnet D, Atkins M, El-Said H, Alshawabkeh L, Hsiao A

Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS) Provides the Filling for the Angiogram's Crust: Benefits of IVUS in Pediatric Interventional Cardiology.
Heyden CM, Brock JE, Ratnayaka K, Moore JW, El-Said HG

Expanded Use of the One-Step Technique for Simultaneous Landing Zone Stenting and Placement of the Melody Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve.
Guyon PW Jr, Mohammad Nijres B, Justino H, Davtyan A, Mosher B, Courelli A, Ratnayaka K, Moore JW, El-Said HG

Infants with pulmonary atresia intact ventricular septum who require balloon atrial septostomy have significantly higher 18-month mortality.
Herrick NL, Courelli A, Lee JW, Ratnayaka K, Alshawabkeh LI, Moore JW, El-Said HG

Bronchial stenting in infants with severe bronchomalacia: Technique and outcomes.
Mittal N, El-Said HG, Ratnayaka K, Rao A, Friesen TL, Nigro JJ, Brigger MT

4D Flow MRI Quantification of Congenital Shunts: Comparison to Invasive Catheterization.
Horowitz MJ, Kupsky DF, El-Said HG, Alshawabkeh L, Kligerman SJ, Hsiao A

Transjugular liver biopsy for Fontan associated liver disease surveillance: Technique, outcomes and hemodynamic correlation.
Borquez AA, Silva-Sepulveda J, Lee JW, Vavinskaya V, Vodkin I, El-Sabrout H, Towbin R, Perry JC, Moore JW, El-Said HG

Patent Ductus Arteriosus Stenting for All Ductal-Dependent Cyanotic Infants: Waning Use of Blalock-Taussig Shunts.
Ratnayaka K, Nageotte SJ, Moore JW, Guyon PW, Bhandari K, Weber RL, Lee JW, You H, Griffin DA, Rao RP, Nigro JJ, El-Said HG

Staged Repair of Van Praagh Truncus Type A3.
Ganta S, Duster N, El-Said H, Artrip J, Rao R, Golding I, Dummer K, Nigro JJ

See the full listing of this physician's publications on PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine.

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