Pulmonary hypertension can be a serious side effect from surgery, especially if you're on a heart-lung machine.

But a new drug, that has its roots in the garden, could offer the fix.

It's hard to believe this healthy looking baby has anything wrong with her, but Rowan Grace Brian has heterotaxy, a heart defect. That's when the heart is reversed.

She's already had two surgeries. For her last one, she received a study medication derived from watermelon to help prevent pulmonary hypertension. 

The study drug helps supplement the body with citrulline, a chemical important in the production of nitric oxide. 

"It helps control neurologic processes. It's very important in maintaining blood pressure, particularly in the lungs," says Dr. Marshall Summar, a pediatric geneticist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN.

Nitric oxide production relies on having enough citrulline in the body. But under stressful circumstances, like surgery, it comes up short.

"That bypass pump really stresses the arteries and blood vessels in the lung, and about a third of the children after their surgery will have a reaction to that when they come off the pump."

As part of the study, the drug is given by IV for up to two days after surgery.
 
"We found that the patients who received the citrulline had much lower rates of pulmonary hypertension than the group that just got the water." 

Because the current study is placebo-controlled, Rowan Grace's dad doesn't know if she got the actual drug.
 
"We really don't know if we had the citrulline or not, but, but at any rate she did well through the whole process,"  says father Barry Grace.

Perhaps thanks to a drug made from watermelon. 

Doctor Summar says citrulline used in the medication is derived from watermelon, but is purified in many, many steps before it's used as an intravenous drug.

AUDIENCE INQUIRY:
The current citrulline study is still recruiting participants. For information, log onto http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Type the trial identification number in the search box: NCT00335244.

For general information on congenital heart disease:
American Heart Association, http://www.americanheart.org
Congenital Heart Information Network, http://tchin.org
National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov
 

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