ORPHA:448270
Ectopia cordis
Also known as: Extrathoracic heart
Publications
960
86.4th percentile
Trials
0
Interventional, condition-specific
Researchers
1,053
Distinct authors in sample
Gene link
—
Readiness
1/6
Stages with a signal
Clinical definition (Orphanet)
A rare non-syndromic heart characterized by life-threatening complete or partial location of the heart outside the thoracic cavity. The main ectopic positions are thoracic but anterior to the sternum, abdominal, thoracoabdominal, and cervical. Associated abnormalities include sternal, diaphragmatic, pericardial, and abdominal wall defects, as well as intracardiac malformations.
How rare: How common this is has not been clearly measured.
Cross-references
Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.
- MONDO:0018664
- MeSH:D054083
- UMLS:C0013580
- NCIT:C111643
Additional Mondo synonyms (2)
ectopia cordis · ectopia cordis (disease)
Research stages
Trial readiness signals
Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”
1/6 stages with a signal
Research-stage checklist from open sources (GenCC, literature, Monarch when enriched, ClinicalTrials.gov). Not a prognosis or care recommendation.
- Gene identifiedNot found
No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build
- LiteraturePresent
960 matched papers (341 in last 10 years) Source
- Phenotype characterisedNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / HPO
- Animal modelNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / Alliance
- Orphan designationNot checked
FDA/EMA orphan-drug designation not enriched yet
- Interventional trialNot found
No matched interventional trial under our ClinicalTrials.gov rules
Biology
Genes and phenotypes
Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.
Do we know what causes it?
Not yet — the cause hasn't been pinned down in GenCC.
No strong gene–disease assertion joined for this Orphanet entity.
Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)
Not enriched in this build — Monarch phenotype joins were not run for this record.
Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)
Not enriched in this build.
Literature
Is anyone studying this?
960
960 papers have been published on this condition. That is a real research literature — still far smaller than common diseases (breast cancer: over 700,000 papers). Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=5449) is 41.
960 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 41 (publications denominator n=5449).
341 in the last 10 years · high confidence · 86.4th percentile (publications denominator)
Phrase hits: 960 · MeSH hits: 63
Who's working on it?
1,053
Distinct author names in 200 sampled papers — named people below.
Who's working on it?
No interventional trial matched this name; these authors publish on it in the sampled literature — a practical starting point for contact.
- 01Araujo Júnior E3 papers · 2026
Department of Obstetrics, Paulista School of Medicine - Federal University of São Paulo (EPM-UNIFESP), São Paulo-SP, Brazil.
Papers in Europe PMC - 02Avedillo L3 papers · 2026
Private Practitioner, Clínica Veterinaria Salud Animal, Griñón, Madrid, Spain.
Papers in Europe PMC - 03Martín-Alguacil N3 papers · 2026
Departmental Section of Anatomy and Embryology, School of Veterinary Medicine, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Avda. Puerta de Hierro s/n, Madrid. Electronic address: nmartina@ucm.es.
Papers in Europe PMC - 04Al Namat D2 papers · 2025
Faculty of Medicine, University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Grigore T. Popa", 700115 Iasi, Romania.
Papers in Europe PMC - 05Al Namat R2 papers · 2025
Faculty of Medicine, University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Grigore T. Popa", 700115 Iasi, Romania.
Papers in Europe PMC - 06Al-Aboudi BS2 papers · 2025
Faculty of Medicine, University of Kufa, Najaf, Iraq.
Papers in Europe PMC - 07Araújo C2 papers · 2025
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Local Health Unit Entre o Douro e Vouga, Santa Maria da Feira, Portugal.
Papers in Europe PMC - 08Arias-Díaz A2 papers · 2021
Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos Pediátricos Doña Pilar. Cartagena, Colombia. Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos Pediátricos Doña Pilar Cartagena Colombia.
Papers in Europe PMC - 09
- 10Bijok J2 papers · 2026
Centre of Endoscopic Simulation, Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, 00-416 Warsaw, Poland.
Papers in Europe PMC
Clinical research
Is a treatment being tested?
0
interventional trials for this specific condition
No interventional trial testing a treatment matched this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov (observational studies and pan-disease registries are listed separately when present).
Data as of 27 July 2026
No matched interventional trials. This is true for 73% of diseases in the trials denominator (5114 of 7003). Here are the researchers publishing on it.
high confidence · 36.5th percentile (trials denominator)
Recruiting interventional trials
From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set
No interventional trial testing a treatment was found for this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov.
See who's working on it — people publishing on this disease are often the practical next contact when no trial is listed.
Where to find support
We do not yet link condition-specific patient organisations. These umbrella groups support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families:
India — NPRD
Last verified 2026-07-26This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.
Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.
How we counted this
Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.
"Ectopia cordis" OR "Extrathoracic heart" OR "ectopia cordis (disease)"
MeSH descriptor terms unioned into the query: Ectopia Cordis
ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):
"Ectopia cordis" OR "Extrathoracic heart" OR "ectopia cordis (disease)"
Study-type breakdown: 0 interventional · 0 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.
Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase, mesh; with hits: phrase, mesh
Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov
Confidence reasoning
- Preferred label is multi-word and distinctive
- No synonyms dropped by stoplist
- No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus
Ingested 2026-07-27T16:37:18.052Z